Watchdog
by GoddessofSnark
Summary: Garret's back after Jump, Push, Fall, but under a few conditions, one of which being a watchdog who's making sure that he sticks to the rules...
1. Chapter 1

A/N So i know I said I'd finish Never Forget, I know I did, but even though HBP played RIGHT into my plot, it's going to be a bit of time before I'll write it because it'll now have HBP spoilers. So instead, I bring you this, tentatively titled fic that I really need a better name for, but if I can't think of one this'll stick, it's about 1/3 written and 2/3's outlined, so it's not going to be abandoned anytime soon, don't worry about that. Don't own anything but Vicky and the plot. Enjoy.

"May I help you miss?" the small woman asked, springing from behind the front desk.

"Yes, actually I need to see Dr. Macy." She strode towards the offices.

"I'm sorry, but Dr. Macy is very busy right now, he just got back-" But the woman kept walking towards the doors, and the small woman attempted to stop her. "May I at least have your name to give you a visitors badge?" The woman grinned.

"Vicky Fejes." She said. "F-e-j-e-s, pronounced nothing like it's spelled." The woman nodded, and filled out the visitors badge before handing it to her. "Now where is Dr. Macy's office?" And she found herself being led to a large wooden and glass door marked Private.

She walked in to find the office of the chief ME to be fairly bland with only a few points of interest. It was cozy, not huge, but by no means small, the desk was covered in a mass of files waiting to be signed and put away into storage, and there was a phonograph on a counter behind the desk. She was just about to see what record was on it when the door opened again.

She spent no time at all to size up the man before her. He was only slightly taller than she was, six foot at the most, but something about him made him appear smaller, he was mostly bald with deep brooding brown eyes and a goatee that almost blended into his tan face. He had an air of commanding, but gentle authority. "May I help you?" He asked and she nodded.

"Vicky Fejes." She told him, extending her hand.

"Garret Macy." He replied, with a firm handshake, gesturing for her to sit down. "What can I do for you?" He asked, leaning back in his chair, looking very relaxed, even though she could see on his face that he wasn't.

"I'm here because this place does a very poor job of following the rules. Although I really must commend your receptionist, she at least made me get a visitors badge and she really did try to not let me back here. She's one to note in my report." That caught the chief's attention and he sat upright in his chair.

"Report?" He asked a little put off. She clicked her teeth, chiding him.

"Dr. Macy, didn't you read the terms and conditions of your returning back to the office of Chief Medical Examiner, Commonwealth of Massachusetts's?" She asked him, and he nodded.

"I did."

"Then you should have read a bit about how you're going to have an independent auditor monitoring everything you do and sending a weekly report back to the ME's office." He looked a little put off, he had forgotten that bit. "My job is to ensure that you, and your staff, follow protocol. And I'm as independent as they get, seems all the folks here in Boston love you. Now, I'm going to need an office, at the least, a desk, and I'll need every single report that is currently on this desk for you to sign off on, from here on out until the DA's office removes me, every file will need not only your, but my signature as well, and I will be present for anything involving a homicide inquiry as well as high profile autopsies, and you will find yourself being critiqued weekly in a report sent to the DA's office." She watched him as he took it all in.

He seemed a little upset about the way she was infringing on his office, but that was to be expected. She hadn't expected to be welcomed with open arms and a great big smile, no she had a dirty job and she knew it, but it was a good job. "And I would like a conference with the staff as soon as possible." He stood up and she followed.

"I'm afraid the only desk we have available is down in the crypt." He told her, leading her to it.

"Just be glad I like the cold." She joked, and he seemed to be slightly less put off by her once he realized that she did, indeed, have a sense of humor.

"I'll call the conference twenty minutes from now? Give you a chance to get settled?" She nodded. She knew he was just being nice because his job depended on what she said about him. And she could see it in him, he wanted to give the staff fair warning about her, and he had every right to, she supposed.

"That would be great." She had a tone in her voice that said that she had everything that she needed, and that he could leave. She sat behind the desk and twirled a pen as she tried to come up with something to say at the conference.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N chapter two's here. More on the way.

Twenty minutes later she retraced her steps until she found the conference room where all the staff was gathered. She breezed through and walked up to the front, the perfect picture of confidence bordering on arrogance. She looked out over the crowd, and smiled politely. "I-" She began "-Am Vicky Fejes. I am here to make sure that none of you screw up. You have a set of rules and regulations that have, up until this point, have all but been tossed out the window."

She watched the reaction of the people very closely. Macy was there, looking like he was biting his tongue, trying to look cool and collected. She could see the fear that she instilled on one of the lab techs and fought back a grin. "I am an agent of the District Attorney's office, so try as you might to get me to leave, the only way to do so is to convince the District Attorney and all of her underlings that I am, in fact, a horrible person."

That seemed to get the crowd even more on edge. "Now, I'm not going to lay blame on any one person for the amount of rule breaking as it's been going on for far longer than I can trace. But I am going to ensure that no further rule breaking goes on, because if it does, it's not just me you'll have to put up with but Dr. Slokum as well." That was the thing that got the crowd at least partially on her side.

She had only met Slokum once and thought that to be one time too many. Any person more arrogant than she was was definitely a bad one. And he was an arrogant, rude, weasily little man that she was glad to get away from. "I will be writing the reports for all high-profile autopsies and murder inquiries as well as writing a weekly report back to the DA, so any and all transgressions will be reported. I would also like to take this moment to say that I am not Slokum however much I may resemble him personality wise. I'm not here because I get a kick out of it but because it is my job, and thus any appeals to me on a personal basis won't have any effect. The DA's office has had enough with the bad press coming from it's subsidiary."

No one dared moved as she stepped back and looked around. "Y'all can get back to work now." She said, and watched the almost mass exodus from the room, each trying to get out as quickly as possible while still trying to look professional. She smiled to herself and started back down to her office, turning a corner that she didn't recognize.

She turned around again and again, trying to remember which way she was going when she almost walked into someone else. "Sorry." She said, looking at the person before her. "Trying to remember where they stuck me and got myself lost." The other woman looked at her sympathetically.

"Where'd they put you?"

"The crypt." The other woman laughed.

"My old desk. I'm Lilly Lebowski." She thought for a minute trying to place the name.

"Grief counselor." She pointed out and the other woman nodded.

"Not bad." She shrugged.

"Hey when you've got an 11 hour flight with a stack full of profiles on all of you guys you've got nothing else to do but read them."

"Eleven hours. That's harsh. Where were you?" They had reached the crypt again, and she hadn't missed the people shying out of her way as she walked by.

"Budapest. I wasn't too harsh back there was I?" She asked, as she sat back behind her desk. "I mean, I'm not evil but you guys really have been kinda insane with all the stuff you've been doing here and I'm supposed to keep you in line." She toyed with the edge of a folder that had been placed on her desk.

"Wasn't too bad, just after Slokum it's a little hard to put up with someone else saying they're going to be our watchdog."

"Yeah, can see how that would work. Thanks." She watched the woman leave before picking up a folder and getting to work reading through it and signing off on mundane death after death.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Thought I'd include the proper way to prounounce Vicky's name as it's from a language that's pronounced nothing like it's spelled...But aside from that, enjoy!

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She had just finished the stack of files when a lab tech came down with a fresh body and a stack of files riding on the end of the metal cart. "These are for you Ms-" He read the name off the name tag having already forgotten it, "Fej-es." He guessed at the pronunciation of her name.

"Fey-yesh." She corrected absently, patting a corner of the desk. "Thanks." She stretched her hand, groaning as she felt it go numb, quickly followed by the side of her body.

"You OK?" the lab tech asked and she nodded.

"Just fine." She replied, trying to flex the muscles. The tech walked out and she slowly felt the feeling come back, taking far too long for her liking. She flexed a few more times, ensuring that she did again have control over her muscles before flipping open the next folder.

She had just gotten through another three files when Macy came back down with someone else that she had recognized as one of the ones that had looked quite annoyed during her staff meeting. "Well doc, what can I do for y'all?" She asked, standing up. "By the way, this stack," She slapped the one on the other end of her desk, "Can get filed away wherever you file them." He nodded.

"Autopsy." He told her.

"Fun." She replied, and the door burst open.

"Dr. Macy, Jordan, get cracking on that murder yet?" A young man limped in on a pair of crutches and noticed her. "Hello." He said, giving her a quick once over.

"Hi."

"Detective Woody Hoyt, Boston PD" He extended his hand while attempting to keep the crutch he was no longer holding balanced.

"Vicky Fejes." She replied, shaking his hand. "Murder, eh?" she asked, and the detective nodded.

"Yeah turned up in his house."

"Well then," She looked at Macy and the other one, "This sounds really fun."

Hoyt looked at her. "New resident?" He asked and she laughed.

"Little old for a resident, don't you think?" The young man shrugged. "I'm with the DA's office. Here to make sure these guys don't paint themselves into corner. Now, let's get going." She said, following the three out and to the autopsy room.

"OK." the detective pulled a flip book out from his pocket. "Mike Skerrit, age fifty three had returned home from the Bahamas to wind up dead stabbed 12 times-"

"Thirteen" Macy cut him off, counting the stab wounds.

"Police counted twelve." Hoyt told him, and she cut them both off.

"Ok, hang on a second, let your overpriced stenographer catch up." She had started a new file on the man filling in the details as they went along. "This makes things quite easy for you because now this is a whole bunch less reports you have to do yourself, cause I'll be doing the reports for all murders. I know Dr. Macy, but you are?" She turned to the other woman.

"Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh." She stared at the other doctor, her eyes narrowing slightly. She had heard plenty about the young woman and out of all the reports she had to read, the woman before her's was the thickest, she honestly couldn't believe that she would still be employed after all that she had pulled.

"Right." she said, writing down the names. "Right," She repeated, "I'm not going to tell you to ignore me cause you can't, but I'm not here to get in your way, do this your way, just give me a chance to catch up writing." She stood back allowing them room to work.

The young detective had long since left, going amazingly fast on the crutches for using them for both legs and not just one. "This guys completely trashed, thirteen stab wounds, one of which pierces the heart, two the lungs, one the liver, one the stomach, one the spleen and multiple in soft tissue. I'd hazard a guess that cause of death is exsanguination." Vicky copied the woman's words with a practiced ease. The two doctors carried on small talk that was easily skipped over as she copied it, only noting the medical facts.

She felt the tingling feeling make it's way back up her side again and she tried to put the clipboard down before the inevitable happened, but she hadn't quite gotten to the counter before she felt her arm again go numb and the clipboard crashed to the floor. "You alright?" Macy asked her concerned.

"Fine." she replied, bending awkwardly without the use of the right side of her body and retrieved the clipboard with her good hand. "I'll be right back." she said, trying her hardest to pick the leg that felt like dead weight up but she knew that it was dragging behind her.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N another chappy done, have plenty more on the way, enjoy!

He reached the door to the crypt about the same time she did and held it open for her. "You sure you're OK?" He asked again as she rummaged through her purse until she pulled out a small bottle.

"Fine, but if you're down here, can you get me a glass of water?" He nodded and filled up a small cup. She fished out a pill and gulped it down quickly. She picked up a file with her good arm and flipped it open.

"Anything you need?" He asked, genuine concern written on his face.

"I'm fine, really." She told him for the third time. "Just having a bad day." she gave him a quirky half smile trying to get the other side of her body to work. "You guys were doing pretty good, go back there and don't do anything that's going to force me to say bad things about you." He smiled and headed for the door. "I do, however-" She started and he turned around, "Want that file before tomorrow morning, hand delivered if it has to be."

He nodded and walked out, leaving her alone with the files. This time the feeling took even longer to come back and she frowned in annoyance. That was never a good thing, most of the time it only lasted a few minutes. Then again, eleven hours on a plane and she should have had a script.

The aspirin took it's time kicking in and it helped fight off the pins and needles that came as feeling returned. She knew that she needed something else, but her insurance wouldn't kick in for another two weeks at the start of the next month and she couldn't afford a doctors visit and the price of a prescription, at least not until her second paycheck. What little she had had gone to renting her apartment at the thousand dollar plane ticket. Her only choice was to grin and bear it.

She turned to the file before her, giving it her full concentration, not noticing the clock until it was already almost half an hour past when she was supposed to be there. She got up, and walked out, barely noticing someone come up behind her in the parking garage. "You alright?" The voice asked, and she laughed.

"Is that all you docs know how to say?" She questioned, turning around to see Jordan heading for her car as well.

"Yeah, well, those clipboards make a hell of a lot of noise when you drop them. Almost gave us a heart attack." She laughed again.

"Just fine, just freeze up every now and then." she got into her car, noticing the doctors stunned expression.

"You have a Rolls?" She looked at her car.

"Just the body." She had spent her last few dollars in paying to have the car shipped out, she'd had the car for ages and refused to get rid of it. "The guts in it have changed a few times. Got it for next to nothing cause it was in horrible shape. My brother fixed it up and when he moved back to the city gave it to me." She turned the ignition and rolled down the window. "I already told Macy that I want that report tonight, I don't care how I get it. Cavanaugh nodded and walked to her car. "See you tomorrow." She called to the retreating form.

"Bye." The doctor called, getting into her own car as she sped off.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N this chapter's twice as long as any others cause I could not find a place to break it, but enjoy it anyway, I think this clears up a bit more about Vicky.

She didn't notice the first knock, or the second, it was the third one that finally caught her attention, and she had just barely unlocked the door when the phone rang. "Come on in!" She shouted, answering the phone. The person that stepped in wasn't the one she thought it would be, and she motioned for him to hang on while she listened to the person on the line. "Oh, right, too bad, I'll see you later then," She paused listening to the caller, "no, it's nothing, don't worry about it, I told you, it's OK, love you too, bye."

She hung up the phone and stopped the buzzing kitchen timer before finally turning to the person who had walked in. "Sorry about all that, just everything happened at once."

"Brubeck." He pointed out, and she laughed.

"Yep." She took off the instrument around her neck and placed it on a stand in the corner of the sitting room.

"Your report." He said, handing it to her. He was walking to the door when the kitchen timer blared again.

"Thanks, but listen, the person who was coming just canceled and I've got all this food, you want dinner?" She smiled at his awkward expression. "It's not like it's poisoned or anything, it's just dinner."

"No thanks, it's OK." He said, and she laughed.

"Dr. Macy, you're drooling." He flushed slightly as she knew that he very nearly was with the aroma drifting out of the kitchen.

"It does smell good." he conceded and she shook her head. "I can't though." He told her and edged for the door.

"Wife and kids waiting?" She asked and he shook his head.

"No."

"Then stay. I'm not going to kill you, just feed you, I've made enough for two and the rest is just going to sit in my fridge and rot if someone else doesn't eat it." He thought about it for a long minute. "Look, I'm not the wicked witch of the west, I'm not out to get you, and why would I want to do harm to the person that is directly responsible for my paycheck? If you weren't around, I wouldn't have a job, and thus I'd be stuck in Boston with no money, I think I'd want to keep you around." He smiled and walked in. "That's a boy, there's drinks in the fridge, help yourself." She pointed to the aging refridgerator in the corner as she busied herself with dishing out the food.

She laid them down with the silverware at opposite ends of the small kitchen table. She sat down and so did he and looked up, waiting for her. "Don't tell me you say grace." He shook his head.

"no, do you?" She laughed.

"I'm a Jew eating sausage, I think saying grace would be looked upon as mockery." He grinned and took a cautious bite.

"This is pretty good." He admitted and she grinned.

"Thank you" She paused for a second, focusing on cutting through the meat.. "So you like jazz, huh?" She asked trying to come up with a topic for conversation.

"Yeah."

"Anyone in particular?"

"Brubeck, early Miles, the bird, Duke Ellington, Satchmo."

"The classic greats. You do realize there is jazz beyond the known artists."

"Harder to find their records."

"Budget binning." She told him. "Gotta love the dollar racks. So, you play?" She asked him and he shrugged.

"Not jazz." She thought for a minute.

"I bet you that I can guess what instrument you play." He looked at her skeptically.

"No, really. Stick out your hand." He did so and she grasped it in hers, running a finger across his rough skin, poking and prodding at various places. "Your other one." She said after finishing with the first. He complied, still looking skeptical. "Drums." She said after a bit. "But you look like a horn player, trumpet would be my guess." He seemed shocked at her words.

"How can you tell?" He asked.

"Magic." She grinned. "No, seriously, you've got callous where your sticks rest, none on your fingertips, which rules out strings, and you just look like a trumpet player."

He seemed impressed. "My dad played the horn." He confessed.

"Not bad for me." She said, as she collected their empty plates and stuck them in the fridge. "So, you guys find anything interesting with our victim? You didn't cheat, did you?" He smiled.

"Nothing really, we're waiting on DNA, and no, we didn't cheat."

"Drink?" She asked him and he shrugged.

"What d'ya got?" He asked, and she opened up her liquor cabinet.

"Wild turkey, Kaluha, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Kentucky Vintage and some brandy."

"Bourbon fan." he pointed out.

"Guilty as charged. Got a thing for whiskey."

"Scotch person myself." he commented.

"Still whiskey." She said looking at the brands.

"Wild turkey." He said after debating and she pulled out two tumblers and poured a generous measure into each. They retreated into the living room where he looked around. "So you play the horn?" He gestured to the instrument in the corner.

"Sax and guitar." She sat down, and indicated for him to do the same. "And I'm sorry about the mess, still unpacking."

"Been here for long?" He asked, and she shook her head.

"Not quite a week." Spent all of it working and getting over jet lag."

"Where were you before?"

"Vep." He gave her a questioning glance. "It's a little town in west Hungary, not that far from the border, before that I was living in New York."

"Never been to New England?" He asked, and she shrugged.

"Vacation, a few times, but never stayed here for more than a week. How 'bout you?"

"Born and raised."

"A true Masshole eh?" He grinned at the insult. "So, Dr. Macy-" She started, and he cut her off.

"Garret." He corrected and she smiled.

"Well, if we're going to be on a first name basis, please, call me Vicky, at least the average person can pronounce it." He grinned. "So, Garret, if you don't play jazz, and you do play drums, what do you play?"

"Rock." He said with a shrug.

"In a band?" He shook his head.

"Not in a long time."

"Too bad." She said, meaning it too.

"You?" He questioned, and she shook her head.

"Played a little bit over there, last time I seriously played was in New York, ages ago. Don't care for playing on stage though, would suck if I freezed up."

"Happens often?" He asked concerned.

"Often enough to be completely and totally annoying." She unconsciously stretched her bad side.

"If you don't mind me asking-" He started and she grinned.

"Stroke, twenty years ago." He looked at her, the doctor in him coming out.

"A little young." He pointed out and she shrugged.

"Wound up with bad genes. Missing an entire anti clotting protein and have a defective anti-thrombin III, my blood's thicker than some of the toxic sludge in New Jersey. Didn't find out about til the stroke though, by that time the damage was done. Doesn't usually bother me though, just had a rough day today." She stifled a yawn and he got up. "'Scuse me." She said, and he placed his glass back in the sink.

"It's late." He said.

"Didn't mean to keep you." He shrugged.

"It's nothing. Dinner was good." She grinned.

"Thank you." She opened the door for him. "I'll have your report back to you tomorrow, see you in the morning."

"See you tomorrow." He said walking out.

"Night." She called after him, leaving her alone with her thoughts about what had just transpired.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N, thanks to all my reviewers! Enjoy this one just as much as the rest! And thanks to JTBWriter for pointing out how awful the formatting was with this, I still don't know what happened, but I will be checking the quickedit/preview thing now before I post.

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The alarm clock rang entirely too early. She got up and stretched thinking of all that had happened the night before. She fished out some food from her fridge and slapped a few pieces of bacon onto a sandwich before sticking that into a ziploc baggie into her oversized purse. After the food came the autopsy report that was sparkling perfect, with no sign of who killed him, aside from the DNA that they were waiting on for a hair that they found on the body, and there was nothing that the DA's office would could find fault with. She parked her car in the garage, taking utmost care that the large frame didn't hang out of the parking space. She headed to her desk, grinning when she saw the staff badge that had been placed there, albeit with a horrible picture of her, but she didn't care. Underneath the badge was a tall stack of reports waiting for her initial. Did Slokum do anything, or had he waited for Garret to come back to do any paperwork?

Garret. Sometime last night he had changed from Dr. Macy to Garret, and it was a funny thing to think about. He wasn't a bad guy, and according to him wasn't married, which was always a good sign, the apprehension on staying was a little off putting at first, but that he did stay was a good sign, he either was single, unafraid to dine with coworkers, or unafraid of what his girlfriend would say, if he had one. She headed up to the break room to stash her sandwich as well as deliver the autopsy report back to him, with her signature, only if the DNA results showed anything would she have to re-initial it.

She stopped by Garret's office, surprised at just how quickly he had switched in her mind from Macy to Garret, last name to first, usually it took at least two dates, or knowing him only by his first name for her to call a guy by that in her mind. She knocked twice on the door frame before walking in. He looked in and gave her a small smile. "Here's you're file back, pass it on to the cops or whatever it is exactly you do with these things before they catch the guy. Get the DNA back yet?" He shook his head.

"Nigel's working on it now." Her eyebrow piqued.

"Nigel. Science guy right?" He nodded.

"Real gadget buff."

"So your financial records show." He smiled slightly, and briefly. "Right, well have him stop by when he gets his results back." He nodded and the lapsed into an awkward silence. "I'll be going then. Szia." He looked up confused and she laughed. "Sorry, live in a country for a decade, hard to stop using that language." He grinned. "See you." She walked out and back down to her office. She found a tall lanky man with long black hair standing in her office, well, if she could call it that, she was already starting to claim it as her own, even if it was the crypt. She had her own section of it, and it was her own personal space. "You must be Nigel." She said, and he nodded, handing her a file, shifting nervously. "You look like you're scared of something. All the dead bodies creeping you out?" She grinned and he relaxed somewhat.

"No, no, it's nothing." He lied and she kept her grin plastered on her face. She knew she looked like she was about to eat him, the same predatory grin a lion has when it knows it has it's prey trapped. "Forensic scientist, real gadget buff as I understand it." He nodded.

"That'd be me." He said, and edged for the door, trying to slip out. She gave him an excuse to leave after sitting and opening a file without dismissing him. There was something amusing about the ones that she got to be almost scared of her, she had read the file on Nigel, and Slokum had seemed to have it in for the poor boy, he had every right to be nervous, but it wasn't her job to fire the staff, just report what they did. It was ultimately the Garret's, and the DA's decision who stayed and who went. She leaned back in her chair as she read over the DNA analysis, matched no known criminals who had DNA on record and it was not the victim's, it was from a blonde hair and it was most definitely male. She put it aside to stick back in the folder that was currently in Garret's office, and started on the rest of the stack of files that awaited her signature.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N so I think that we didn't see enough of cheery, happy, around-her-friends Walcott, so thus, this. I'm trying to write more of this (First draft's about ¾ done) while fighting off a rabid plot bunny concerning Devan that's firmly lodged in my leg gnawing it's way to the bone, but first I want to write more of this. And Never Forget.

It was a long time later when the door opened again. "Did they have to stick you in here of all places?" She looked up and grinned.

"Renee!" She got up and flipped the folder shut, wrapping a single arm around the other woman.

"You have the filed on that murder?" She shook her head.

"Gave it back to Garret." She paused. "Since when to DA's get involved in random crimes of passion?"The only response she got was a shrug.

"I've got a somewhat personal stake in this."

"It wouldn't happen to do with a person bearing the initials GM would it?" She felt dark eyes boring into her. "I won't ask. But I'll get you that file, doesn't have a whole lot DNA was found, but without a suspect to compare it to, it means nothing. What've your cops dug up? By the way, they're kinda cute if a little mangled."

"Hoyt?" The other woman asked, smiling. "Robbing the cradle are we? It would be a shame to loose you for dating jail bait, I need you to testify." She laughed.

"Of course, you only want to use me."

"I'm a dirty lawyer what do you expect? Using People 101 was the one class I aced in law school." She laughed.

"Yeah, I keep forgetting, you actually had to study."

"And you keep rubbing that in, don't you. Yes, I know you did better than me."

"It's all the test taking ability." They had started walking up to the chief's office, bantering all the way.

"And how to practice. I still don't know why you gave it all up." She shrugged.

"Eh, I felt the world of meat was more interesting." The DA shook her head, smirking slightly.

"I'll never understand that."

"What can I say, being a lawyer had too many stresses. Out there life's so easy, I'm already starting to miss it, sorta."

"I'm going to string you up from your meat hooks if you leave after all I did-" She laughed at the other woman's mock anger.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to leave. Yet. After I get a few paychecks and have the money to go back, maybe."

"You eat anything yet?" She shook her head and felt her stomach rumble at the mention of food.

"I've got a sandwich in the fridge-" She trailed off and the DA laughed.

"Answer the question, yes or no. And then answer me this-do you want to get lunch?" She grinned.

"Yeah, sure."

"Good, I'm getting creeped out, being in here too long gives me the chills."

"Oo, big bad district Attorney afraid of a few dead bodies?" She felt a hand connect with her side as her companion whacked her one. She stopped by the front desk where she informed the woman behind it that she was going out to lunch and if there was anything for her, and she received a small couple of files, and she walked out with the DA.

"I'll never understand you, you say that being a lawyer was stressful, yet here you are coming out with a stack of files, to lunch." They strolled down the street. "Italian?" Her friend suggested and she nodded.

"Sounds good." The walked down the cool city streets enjoying the fresh air and reached the cafe making small talk all the way, never once talking about anything serious. It took her halfway through a plate of linguine con vongole to finally pry the juicy bit out of her friend. "I've been begging you all morning to tell me why you're putting your ass on the line for this guy. So spill."

Renee shook her head. "No, it's nothing."

"You're going to tell me if I have to beat it out of you, and I have nothing against doing that either. I was so good at plea bargaining because I could force people into spilling, so spill. So what's your stake in this?"

"I owe it to him." The other woman shrugged and stared down at the plate of chicken parm before her.

"Owe it to who, Garret?"

"First name basis, are we?" She grinned, knowing full well what her friend was doing, but she could still feel the tint of red cross her cheeks. "I'll dish if you will." She shook her head. "Well you're not going to get me to tell you if you don't tell me."

"Nu-uh, you're telling me first, then I'll tell you."

"How can I tell you won't back out once I spill?" She grinned.

"You don't, you just have to trust your longtime friend on this one." The DA thought for a long while.

"Fine. We dated." Again the dark eyes stared at the plate, begging no further questions.

"And?" She questioned knowing there was more to it than that.

"And it went badly. Very badly." She rolled her eyes.

"Obviously something you did cause if it was something he did, I'm sure you'd be glad that he was gone." Her friend shook her head.

"He's good at his job, he really is, but I was seeing him when my ex and I-" The woman trailed off trying to find a way to describe what happened.

"Got knocked up?" She suggested, it was a crude but effective way of putting it, and her companion nodded. "Yikes, I can see why you might think that that relationship went sour." She paused for a minute. "You don't still-" She looked at her friend who laughed.

"Want him? Why, you thinking about snapping him up?" She felt the red tinge her cheeks yet again.

"Well, he's nice enough, not bad looking, in fact he's like Patrick Stewart, the man does bald, he likes jazz and my cooking."

"Your cooking? Jesus you're out of the country for a decade and within your first week back you're already having guys over. What'd they do to you over there?" They both laughed as they finished their meals and called the waiter for their check. She shrugged. "It was just dinner, and entirely unplanned."

"Yeah, right." She laughed at her friend's skepticism.

"Serious. I told him I wanted the file last night no matter what, and he dropped it off as Aaron called twenty minutes before he was supposed to show up telling me he was still in the city. So I had all this food and he was there, so I invited him to eat." Her friend laughed again as they strolled back to the tall stone building.

"You mean ordered. When it comes to you and your cooking you don't invite, you order." She laughed.

"Well, so maybe I was a little forceful." They reached the elevators laughing. "Renee, it was great to see you again, and thanks for the job, I mean it."

"Can't think of someone better qualified for it than you. Just glad you came back." She grinned.

"Bye."

"See you Vick, I'll give you a call about your testimony." She nodded as she punched the button for her floor and waited for the elevator doors to close.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N Here's another chapter. I very well may start on the fourth multi-chap fic I've got in the works if the stupid plot bunny won't let go, but I need to outline that first, at the moment all I have is Devan+Woody and Garret+Jordan and a rough plot. That's what's in the wings after this, the only thing I know is this one has a deadline of August 4th cause I leave for a 10 day trip and I'm nice enough to wrap up the fic before then. Enjoy!

She all but ran into Garret as she walked off the elevator. "Hey." She said as he walked in.

"Hey. Lunch?" he questioned, and she nodded.

"Yep. Lemme guess, that's where you're heading?" He shook his head.

"No, pickup. Another stabbing." She raised her eyebrows.

"Fun." She gave him a little wave goodbye and headed towards her desk. "Give me a shout when you do the autopsy." She called to the closing elevator, unsure if he heard her.

She reached the crypt to find someone else in there, the infamous Dr. Cavanaugh. "Hey." She said, sitting behind her desk.

"Hey. So you hobnob with the DA too?" She shrugged.

"Renee and I go back a long way. Went to Columbia together." If the young doctor was impressed she didn't show it.

"I thought you came from a far and distant land." She laughed.

"Only for the last decade. Born and raised in the city."

"The city?" She questioned, wondering just which one the woman was referring to.

"_The_ city. New York." The young woman gave a nod of her head, long dark hair falling into her face to be quickly brushed away.

"Not a Yankees fan, are you?" She laughed again.

"If I was, I wouldn't say. I stick to my Amazin's when it comes to baseball." The doctor looked confused at the local nickname for her team. "The Mets."

"So you're a big fancy lawyer huh?" She knew that the doctor was feeling her out, but she played along anyway, it didn't hurt.

"Yep. Sorta. Haven't practiced in ten years."

"So what did you do in far and distant land?"

"Meats. My cousin owned a butcher shop, I ran it until my nephew came of age. But I'm here now, and that's the vital thing, and what are you, the grand inquisitor?" The doctor blanched, as if she didn't expect her to figure it out. "That's my job, to put y'all through the auto de fe." The young ME grinned though.

"Just trying to get to know the new staff."

"When then, what about you, if we're exchanging pertinent information. Aside from the fact that I've met my match with someone who has trouble staying in one place. Out of all the staff files I had to read through yours rivals the encyclopedia britannica. I'm surprised Slokum didn't have you out the door the second he saw your file." She grinned though, belying what could have been seen as a mean comment. "Be glad I dont let the past influence what I'm writing, if only cause if we were focusing on each other's pasts I probably wouldn't be in Boston right now."

She thumbed through her stack of files. "Anything else you need Torquemada?" The doctor grinned.

"Nope nothing Ms-"

"Call me Vicky, please, Fejes gets slaughtered far far too easily."

"If that's the case, I'm Jordan." She gave the doctor's small hand a shake, and she felt as if she had just passed a major test with flying colors when she gained Jordan's trust.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N What little I know of butchering comes from buying meat and watching food TV, if I made a small mistake, please, correct me.

* * *

She had just started making headway on the never ending stack of files when the door opened again. Garret walked in decked out in scrubs, his black undershirt just peeking out beneath the collar. "Autopsy." He told her and she followed him out, getting the rundown as they walked back through the mourge. "Forty year old came in beheaded and bloody." She nodded walking in. "It's a pretty gruesome mess." He warned and she shrugged.

He wasn't joking. The man on the table had more missing than he had left. "Going to be hard to do an autopsy, there's no organs." A young Indian doctor with a British accent was standing there, she assumed him to be Bug. The two ME's rolled what was left of the body over. "He was gutted and has huge chunks of flesh removed."

"He was butchered." She said looking over the body, amazed.

'Tell me about it." Bug said, and she shook her head.

"No, like literally butchered." She took a quick stock of what was missing. "It's no cow but if you compared it, from the hips down to the thighs, he's missing flesh, that's pretty much the flank, the meat off the shoulder, the chuck, rib meat, and he was gutted and beheaded, like you butcher a cow." She looked at the man's ankles.

"Ligature marks." Garret pointed out, giving her a strange look. "How do you know that, though?"

"Spent the past ten years working in a meat market, I think I know what cuts are what, I only had to tell the stupid idiots they were cutting it wrong. Whoever did this did a good job of it, really, clean cuts. Hell, if he hadn't just chopped up a person I'd have been tempted to pack him up and ship him off to Fejes meats."

"So what do you think he's doing?" Bug asked, and she could see that he was hoping not the obvious, then again so was she.

"That's your job, I just interrupted with my own two cents." She said, backing up and writing down what they had already found. It didn't take them long to finish without much of a body to examine. She stopped by Garret's office while he was changing back into his shirt and tie and found the file she was looking for right on top of the desk. She grabbed it along with the one she had just filled out and compared them.

The pictures that had been taken had already made their way into the files and she sat behind her desk comparing them. Garret had walked in unnoticed, she was too busy comparing the two crime scenes. He stood in front of her desk and cleared his throat making her jump halfway out of her seat. "Don't do that, you could knock or something." She said putting down both files.

He leaned over her desk to see what she was working on. "These look like the same knife, it sounds like a large boning knife." She pointed out the similar marks made on the bodies.

"Why are you only here to make sure we don't screw up?" He asked as he compared the two.

"Because I flunked my way through med school." He looked at her interestedly. "Ok, so I passed med school, barely, was asked after my first year of internship to find another field. Tried another field and was told the same thing, decided to try a whole different profession. Half the reason I left the country was to escape debt collectors for student loans." He grinned.

"Know that feeling. I got married right after I started my residency, had a kid the next year, you don't make nearly enough to cover yourself much less a family on what a resident makes." She grinned.

"People think docs are rich but it takes a damn long time to get there." He nodded. "But you think these two might've been killed by the same guy?" He shrugged.

"Totally different crimes though, the one looks like a crime of passion the other was obviously premeditated. Why would the same killer do that?" She thought for a long minute.

"It takes a long time to drain the blood from a body, you usually gut it to stop contamination from the intestinal fluid right after you kill it and then drain the blood out, it doesn't go that fast, maybe he got bored while he was waiting?" Jordan came around the corner and watched the two for a long minute.

"Is this a private party or can anyone come in?"

"So long as you brought some booze you're always welcome." She laughed and Jordan walked in. Garret picked up the files, showing her what had been discovered.

"Well, if this guy killed one and butchered the other, it might be similar guys, but not nessicarily the same. You don't think our butcher could be taking lessons from Hannibal Lector though do you?"

"A cannibal?" Garret asked, and she shivered at the thought.

"Hey, we've seen some pretty weird things come through here, first time for everything, isn't there?" Jordan said, trying to not look repulsed at the thought.

"I'd think human would be a bit stringy and gamey though, ick." Jordan smiled slightly and she saw the briefest grin cross Garret's face before they started out.

"I'll give Woody a call, tell him to keep an eye out for that." She nodded and headed back to her files, trying to finally finish off a stack that she swore multiplied when left unattended.


	10. Chapter 10

"I think we've got a serial killer." She all but lept out of her seat as Garret snuck up behind her.

"What?" She asked, getting up after regaining her composure.

"Third body, same MO as the last one, this time it's a female though, found on the opposite side of town, by the TWT." She followed him up to the autopsy room.

"Last one was found near Roxbury, right?" He nodded. They breezed inside, and she found Hoyt there, supporting himself on his crutches, leaning against the wall. "Detective." She acknowledged him, with a slight nod of the head. "You the investigating detective?" He shook his head.

"Liaison to the ME's office until I'm back up without these things." He clicked his crutches together. She nodded, knowing the feeling. "So another butchered body." She leaned over to take her own look and fill out the chart on the file.

"Same cuts." She pointed out. "Two in one day."

"On opposite sides of town." Woody pointed out, if a bit late.

"They weren't killed there though." Jordan looked over the body. "Would have been too much blood, there's none on him though." With that Nigel burst in, sheet of paper in hand.

"Right, got DNA back on the first two, the hair that we found matched." Jordan found a third hair on the third body.

"And I'm willing to bet that this one matches as well." She sealed it in a vial and handed it to Nigel who quickly left to compare the third to what they already had. "I think what we need more than anything is the crime scene."

"Right, I'll get on that." Woody hopped out, surprisingly fast on his crutches.

"My hand's going to fall off if we get another." She complained, shaking off the writers cramp that came from jotting down the information as quickly as the docs could spout it off.

"I'm with you on that, picking through someone else's leftovers is getting annoying." Jordan sealed what was left of the body up and started wheeling it down to the crypt. "Great first week back, eh boss?" Jordan elbowed Garret who just shook his head, as the two old friends all but forgot about her presence in the room.

She just smiled and marked off what they had found as the two medical examiners walked out, her following along writing all the way. "I'm beginning to miss my vacation, however forced it was." He replied, holding the door open for the gurney holding the remains of their poor victim.

"Walcott's going to be all over this." Jordan pointed out as the stuck the body back into one of the trays that would keep it cold enough to not decompose.

"She already was." She pointed out, sitting back down behind her desk. "That's why she stopped by earlier." Garret's face flashed with some sort of emotion that she couldn't place.

"You know Renee?" He asked, and she shrugged.

"Went to law school together" His stomach gave an audible growl and she laughed. "And since she dragged me out to lunch, you're welcome to what I left in the fridge, or whoever else wants it." She offered, kicking her feet up on her desk and grabbing a file to read and initial.

"I'm fine." He said, and she shrugged.

"It's there if you want it, pass it on to your staff if you don't want it, I'm not going to have it, and it's just going to rot. It's good gypsy bacon." He grinned.

"I believe you said the same thing last night. And you had sausage. Do you ever eat anything else?" She laughed.

"What can I say, cute little piggies, ducks, cows, chickens, deer, most other birds that I haven't mentioned and sheep were all made with the express purpose of being eaten. There are just some that taste better than others. If you're not going to eat it, I'm sure someone else will, that Nigel could use some meat on his bones, he's stick thin." Garret just grinned as he walked out, and she laughed to herself as he walked out.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N I sincerely apologize for how much is being posted today, but it is my revenge on They ban me for a week, I come back with twice as much as I would normally write. So for all of you who have me on author alert, I am truly sorry for all this, but I'm getting my revenge.

* * *

She sat back, trying to piece together the murders. The only thing they knew as that it was a blonde man who had some knowledge of how to butcher something. Could be anyone though. A hunter, a butcher, even a good chef would have some knowledge of how to butcher meat. No other evidence. He was good, whoever it was was very good at what he did. She had no doubt that once they found him that Renee would be out for blood and get it, but right now they needed to find whoever this guy was.

All their jobs were on the line with this case. Renee had been doubted and questioned when she chose to bring Garret back, and she knew that although the press would never mention it, that her friend's involvement with the ME in question had been something that made the decision even harder. The press knew better than to print that, but there was enough insinuation in the papers that anyone who could read between the lines knew that part of the reason Garret was back was because Renee had screwed over their relationship.

But she had seen him work first hand, he was a damn good ME, he knew what he was doing, he wasn't an idiot. He did his job well, professionally. He never let pride step in, he never gloated about breaking a case. When she had been back in New York there were ME's who rubbed it in to the cops whenever they figured it out before the detectives did, there were quite a few detectives who weren't too fond of that either, one of her ex boyfriends sprang to mind.

She flipped through the files, staring at the crime scene photos, trying to find something else that would tie them all together. Forget the crossword, this was her idea of fun. The first one was the only one to have been found where he was killed, the others had all been butchered someplace else and dumped. The only similarity between the two butchering victims was that they were strung up by the ankles. The only thing that tied the three together was the hair and the knife.

The two butcher victims had been gutted before death and beheaded. It was gruesome, even Fejes meats had killed the animals before gutting and bleeding them out. It was important to do it as close to death as possible, but she had never seen someone as inhumane as to do it to something alive, much less a person. It sent chills down her spine to think of it.

She read and reread the case notes on the first victim. Max Merrit, he had been found at home having just returned from vacation. A neighbor had come over with his mail to find him dead just inside the doorway. A bolt of inspiration hit her, and she all but leapt up, as close to leaping as her old bones would allow, cringing as she heard her knee pop. She really needed to find a good doctor, but not until her insurance kicked in. Which was still three weeks away.

She headed up to his office and knocked twice on the doorway before walking in. She found him sitting at his desk, his feet propped up on the corner finishing off what had been her sandwich. So he had taken her up on her offer. "I see hunger got the better of you."

"Where did you learn to cook?" He asked, and she could tell he was impressed. She grinned, that was always a good thing.

"Mamma Fejes always said that good looks and success can only attract a man, to keep him you must feed him." A smile crossed his face. "But that's besides the point. I know you guys are supposed to be doing the crime solving but I've got a problem with sticking my nose, as large as it is, where it doesn't belong." She tapped the side of the protruding feature with a smile. "Have a look at this. The first guy was killed in his house, with the same knife, and he had just been on vacation. When you butcher someone, you drain all the blood from the body, any blood left taints the meat, you need something to drain that blood into. What if our killer killed the first two in this guys house and killed him when the guy came home and found him?"

Garret looked at the files, donning a pair of reading glasses. He looked older with them, fitting the stereotype of glasses making you look more intelligent. But he was bright to begin with, he didn't need to look it.

"I think you might be onto something. I'll call Woody." He said, impressed with her, this time not for her culinary skill.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N So I like dialog more than action. Blame it on being in the process of writing a script. Enjoy it anyway.

* * *

Woody loved the little tie that binds that she had found. "You are wonderful, absolutely wonderful." He exclaimed, hugging her, his crutches banging awkwardly together and she laughed. She grinned.

"Got a thing for logic problems." She shrugged, attempting to look humble. It felt good to be praised for what she had noticed. First by Garret and now by Woody. She had to admit that Garret's praise had meant more to her than Woody's, but then again, Woody just wasn't her type. He was too lovable, too cuddly, to suburban. She liked the tall dark brooding type who tried to hide his heart. And that's exactly what Garret was.

Woody grinned, a charming, disarming grin. Maybe she was wrong about the young detective. Whoever caught him would be a lucky girl indeed, she couldn't deny the fact that he was absolutely gorgeous, with those blue eyes and the ruffled dark hair. He had a James Bond-esque quality to him, if he was an actor, and British, she'd suggest him to play the role.

She turned to Garret who was trying to find anything else between the murders that was similar. "You doing anything for dinner?" She asked him and he shook his head. "Care to show a girl around Beantown? Keep hearing about all these different places and I know absolutely nothing about where they are." He thought for a minute and she stood there grinning looking innocent.

"Yeah, sure." He finally agreed and got up to walk with her to the elevator. "Been a long day." He confessed as he stretched out his back.

She nodded in agreement. "So you've spent your whole life in Boston? Never lived anywhere else?" He shook his head.

"Longest I've been away was two months."

"Someplace nice I hope?" He shook his head.

"New Jersey." He admitted and she laughed.

"Furthest place from my mind for a vacation. What possessed you to GO to New Jersey? Most folks try to leave the state." He grinned. "What were you doing there?"

He shrugged. "Working." She laughed.

"Like I said, what were you doing?" He shook his head.

"I always had a dream of playing for the Sox, they started a farm team down there, went to tryout, was easily blown away but I had already paid a months rent down there." She grinned.

"So what did you do when you failed for the Thunder?" He looked impressed that she knew the team. Three times in one day, that was always a good sign.

"You know them?" He asked her and she shrugged.

"My mum and pop moved there after I finished my undergrad. So what did you do when you didn't make the team?" He shrugged.

"Stuff."

"Like?" She knew that whatever it was he wasn't proud of.

"Well, I worked with the Thunder for a bit." She quirked an eyebrow as they walked down the street.

"Oh really? Let me guess, grounds crew?" He shook his head.

"I only worked for them for two games before I quit."

"Hmm...so what were you that you're so loathe to tell me?"

"Avoiding med school, for one thing." He was trying to avoid telling her what it was and she was pushing him, a joking tug of war fight, she would tug on him to get the information out and he would tug to keep it a secret.

"Don't blame you for that one, but what did you do to avoid going on to higher learning?"

"I worked a game and a half as Boomer before quitting." She laughed as the color drained away from his face, and she stopped her laughing.

"Sorry, but I can't see you running around in a giant green costume."

"Neither could I. Pizza?" He suggested and she grinned, walking into the small pizza parlor.

"Got nothing on New York pizza, but it's not bad. Beats some of the crap they've got overseas. I love the cooking from the old country, but they can't make good pizza." He grinned as she bit into the cheesy, saucy mess.

"But Boston has the one thing New York doesn't."

"What? Chowder?" He nodded.

"Nothing beats Boston chowda." She laughed as he put on the full, grating, New England accent.

They were back on the street waling around, enjoying the night, it was growing colder and colder as it wore on, the fall air starting to bite, and she shivered ever so slightly. He smiled and shrugged off his jacket, handing it to her. She grinned and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"Boston only has one song about it though. New York has dozens."

"But Dirty Water is a good song. You have to like the Standells." She laughed.

"Prefer the Dropkick Murphys version of it better." He looked a little shocked at that one, as if she shouldn't know the Dropkicks. There was no rule that said you had to be a teenager to enjoy good punk rock.

"And we've got the green monster." She laughed as he pointed to the bright lights of the stadium.

"Keep it and kick some Yankee ass, us Mets fans need something to gloat about." He grinned again, he really had a charming grin, he looked so young, so carefree when he grinned.

"Boston's a great city." He said as they closed in on her block.

"Not bad, not bad." She admitted walking up the three flights to her apartment. "Fun night." She said, standing in front of her door.

"Yeah." He agreed, and she leaned against the wall.

"Thanks for the guided tour." He smirked. Now that was sexy. He looked mischievous and cunning and, well, sexy when he did that.

"It was nothing." He said, and she unlocked her door.

"See you tomorrow." He nodded.

"Tomorrow." He repeated, and there was an awkward silence between them. She felt as if she was in junior high again, barely a teenager and here they were unsure of how to end a date.

"Night." She said, and she could tell he felt the same awkwardness.

"Night." Again, he repeated what she had said. That was supposed to be a good sign, at least she thought it was. She got fed up with just shifting back and forth waiting to see what happened, and she leaned in and kissed him. It was a gentle kiss, not a hungry one, a soft one that said 'thank you' rather than 'I want to jump your bones.'

"Night." She said again before closing the door behind her, leaving him dumbstruck on the landing.


	13. Chapter 13

The next morning she was awakened by the sound of her phone ringing. "Whoever this is, it is far too early. It better be good." She griped into the line, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes to read the alarm clock. Barely five.

"Yeah, well it is. Another victim and your ass is on the line now too."

"Renee." She commented, recognizing the other voice that sounded just as sleep deprived as hers. "Another one?" She asked, rolling towards her closet.

"One of the officers, he must have been tracked from when he went to go investigate the house. He had to have been killed someplace different though, the cops found the tub covered in blood and they've been watching the place all night, nothing."

She groaned. "I'll be in as soon as possible." She pulled out an outfit from her closet and pulled off her PJ's to change into it.

"I told them to go ahead and start the autopsy, they've been following the rules, haven't they?" She grinned as she pulled on a blouse.

"Yes, they've been good little boys and girls. No time outs required." she heard a slight chuckle from the other end of the line.

"Good. See you in a few." The phone clicked, and she knew that her friend had hung up on her. She quickly got dressed and grabbed her brush from the vanity, running it through her untameably thick hair. She hated it, her father had had very thick, very curly hair, her mother had had straight, perfect hair, she got stuck with the bastardization of the two, a messy, bushy bunch that wasn't curly enough that she could forgo brushing entirely, but was too straight to do much with. She pulled it into a loose ponytail and doubled it over forming a messy bun.

She drove in as quickly as possible, hating the traffic and that her car was far too long to take tight turns and risk running lights. It was the only downside to the gorgeous thing. She parked it and headed up the elevator. "Hey." She said as she walked in. "Garret, Jordan, Renee." She acknowledged the three of them in order, looking around. "Another one bites the dust, eh?" She stifled a yawn.

"Butchered like the other two. Looks like we have a serial killer who's not afraid to kill cops." Renee seemed to be spitting venom as she talked and she bit back a grin. This was not a light situation, but her friend had a bad habit of getting far to involved in cases. It was what made her so good at her job, but it could be a hindrance at times.

She looked over the body, noticing everything about it. "Same knife." she pointed out, and the nodded. "Matched him by prints?" Another nod. "None of the heads found?" This time the other heads shook.

"Nope." She groaned.

"Joy. We've got a dead cop and two dead innocent people. "

"OK folks, you got anything good?" Woody limped in, just barely missing being hit by the doors. "Can't I sue or something that this place doesn't have handicap access?" he complained, looking over the body himself. "The house was a goldmine, but all the DNA and blood is the victims, nothing that would point us to the killer. No suspect yet."

Renee frowned. "We need this guy, all our jobs are on the line with him." Her friend was just pointing out the truth, however much she didn't want to hear it.

"Don't remind me." Garret spoke for the first time that morning. Woody's cell phone rang and the young detective spoke for a long while before grinning.

"Don't worry doc, you're job's not going up in smoke just yet. We've got a car. Someone saw someone dumping something out of a car right by where we found Officer Holt here, We've got the car now, labs running prints. Plates are stolen, but hopefully our butcher here left behind something more than a hair." Renee looked relieved.

"Thats great." She said, much relieved herself. "But what do we do until then?" She asked, itching to do something helpful.

"Wait." Garret shrugged as he spoke, knowing that was the only thing they could do until the lab got the results back.

"There's gotta be something." She said, beginning to pace. She hated having nothing to do, it drove her nuts. She always had to be doing something, and most of the time it was more than one thing at once.

"What's your personal stake in this?" Jordan asked her. She had the feeling the young doctor still had a few misgivings about her, but she knew that the woman had every right not to trust her.

"My job, same as Renee, same as Garret. If Garret's gone, I'm not needed, if Renee is gone, well, my job was created by her, next person will definitely can it." She moved closer to Garret, and when she realized what she was doing she bit back a grin. Subconsciously moving closer to him, seeking some sort of comfort. He was her type, she had to admit, and the past two nights had been great, they hit it off really well, she wanted to know more about him, she wanted to know if he would finally be the one.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N again, I apologize for the sheer volume of stuff. This is done, by the way, just needs to finish being typed. Will be posted in it's entirety by August 4th.

* * *

"Pizza?" Jordan suggested as the clock drew closer and closer to lunch time. They had been there for six hours already, and it had felt like a day. Each minute passed by far too slowly as they waited for the results. They had already been through ever inch of evidence, looking for everything and anything they could find, and came up with nothing beyond what was already logged.

"Sounds good." Renee seconded and she shrugged.

"Just had it last night, but what the hell." They turned to Woody and Garret who were left to make the vote for lunch unanimous

"Works for me." Woody said.

"I'm outvoted anyway." Garret said, shrugging. She caught Jordan's smirking glance at the boss, and grinned herself. Jordan called in the order and no sooner had it been delivered than the phone rang again. Woody picked it up and listened, a broad grin stretching out across his face.

"Lab's matched the DNA to the killer and a print to a guy with a prior record. A couple of officers are bringing him in right now." Renee looked up with a grin of her own.

"Great." The DA turned to her. "And you're going to have to work on your testimony. Biggest part of your job." She rolled her eyes.

"I don't see why these wonderful doctors couldn't testify." She argued and Renee shook her head.

"Because a good lawyer would call in their competency. Not that I doubt it, but there are some ruthless lawyers in Boston." She laughed.

"Can't be any worse than some of the ones in New York. Like the ones that tried to get me to work for them. Gambeski Lanzoni and Collins." Her friend laughed. "Fine, but can it wait until after lunch?" She conceded and the DA nodded.

As they ate, she and Renee chatted in a corner. "So, what's going on between you and Garret?" She shook her head.

"Nothing." She said, glaring at her friend.

"Not what I hear. I've got some sources that said the two of you were out painting the town red last night."

"So he gave he a tour of Boston. I was complaining about not knowing the city." She confessed and Renee turned on the full amount of heat that had gotten her to where she was.

"And?"

"And I left him on my doorstep, nothing happened." She felt dark eyes boring into her, and she met them with a dark glare of her own. Her friend had 'I don't believe you' written all over her face, and she finally melted under the pressure. "Ok, so we might have kissed."

"Might have?" Renee asked skeptically.

"I don't kiss and tell." She caught Garret's eye as she said that and found that same sexy smirk cross his face.

"You never had any problems with that before." She shrugged.

"You haven't seen me in a decade. Besides, you think I would with the man in question standing in the same room?" Renee laughed.

"You used to kiss and tell with the guy sitting next to you, sparing no gory detail watching him squirm." She laughed in remembrance.

"So I grew up."

"Vicky, you hadn't grown up at all in the ten years I knew you, and you were far past teenager at that point, something tells me another ten years didn't change that."

"Being in a foreign country can change your perspective." She argued, and the DA shrugged.

"Really, would never have thought that." She rolled her eyes at the sarcasm.

"Seriously, there's nothing serious between us. Nothing between us at all."

"Right, and I'm seriously the queen of England."

"No, that would mean I'm distantly related to you. And I don't want to even think of being related to you, it's bad enough I have to put up with you for work." She teased her friend jokingly, and the other woman rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, quit the blueblood routine, a sixteenth cousin of a defunct monarchy does not royalty make."

"There is nothing between us though." Renee finally relented. She finished her pizza and watched Garret leave, retreating back to his office. She paused for a minute before following him. She sat down across from him and he gave her an odd look.

"Nothing between us?" He asked, and she felt her face turn red.

"Well, do you want there to be?" He thought about it.

"We just met." He pointed out and she nodded.

"I know." They lapsed into silence.

"What do you want?" He asked her.

"Well, you're a nice guy. Not bad looking-" He smiled but looked slightly uncomfortable. He wasn't used to receiving praise for his looks.

"With baggage." He pointed out, and she shrugged.

"We all come with strings attached." She told him, knowing that far too well. "I'm not perfect, and well, I don't want to date the perfect man. If I did, I'd be down the hall all over Mr. Gimpy Detective." Garret grinned briefly.

"I think Jordan's got Woody, but the way they dance around each other, no one can tell." She grinned. "So you want this? Us?" He asked and she frowned.

"Stop doubting it." She told him and she leaned across the desk to kiss him, more passionately than she had the night before. The door creaked open and Renee walked in.

"Nothing, right." The DA said, and she felt herself blush again. "We've got the guy in custody if the two of you are going to tag along to watch questioning." The two got up and followed her friend out and down to the police station.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N I apologize for all the baseball analogies as well, but I love the sport, and my Amazin's. And baseball's always good for analogies.

* * *

The blonde man who sat before them looked strangely cool and collected for a murder suspect. "We have your prints, we have your DNA on all the bodies, you have no alibi, care to confess?"

He shook his head. "I don't care, I didn't do it, are you going to indite me or not?" Renee turned to them.

"Chris McFarland." She said, reading the sheet on him. "Last known address 322 west 14th street, New York."

"Meat packing district." she pointed out. "What's he doing here?" Renee shrugged.

"Claims he's a tourist. Came up here for the chowder."

"Why do I not believe him." She turned to Garret. "What do you think?" She asked him and he shrugged.

"He's a match for the DNA, he's our guy, can't disprove forensics." She laughed.

"Always the doctor." She teased, and he smiled. "Remand?" She asked and Renee nodded.

"He's a definte flight risk, as he's not from here." She nodded. "And you, missy, need to work on your testimony. Trial date's going to be set real fast." She shrugged but nodded as well.

"I'll get on that as soon as I get back." She said, knowing she was going to put off. Renee knew it too, but there wasn't much the other woman could do.

"Good." was the only response she got. Woody had gotten nowhere with questioning and he had finally given up, taking the man down to booking.

"You coming back?" She asked Garret and he nodded.

"Yeah, in a minute. You go ahead." She shrugged and headed out, leaving him alone. She had fallen for him, she knew it. He was a nice guy, she had gone far to long since her last boyfriend, she didn't care if she was pushing him slightly. And she really didn't care who her next boyfriend was, she just wanted someone. Preferably someone good looking and on par with her intelligence. And shared her interests. And that was Garret.

She had heard enough about him to know that beneath that gruff exterior he was really a teddy bear, soft and cute and cuddly, and nice. If she was going to see someone, she might as well make it worth her time. Someone who was going to work out with her. Someone who could very well be the one that she'd hang on to, unlike all of her previous relationships.

She grinned. If the Sox could break their curse and win, she could break her curse and hit the jackpot as well. She just wished that her love life was more akin to the Sox than the Cubs and that she would get lucky this time, and not come so close to loose due to some freak error.


	16. Chapter 16

She gave the lock of hair an annoying swat as it again fell into her eyes. She knew stepping out without putting a half gallon of product into her hair had been a death sentence, but she had been in quite a rush. She tried to focus on the file before her, but found it hard. She thought that if the guy was caught that the world would be good again.

But at the moment the only thing tying him to the victims was the hair, and he claimed he was robbing the place, he saw the dead bodies, looked at them to see if they were real and left, blowing right by the guy who had been the first victim. It provided him an alibi, but a very poor one at that. Unfortunately his whole criminal record had been petty crimes and he hadn't worked in any of the butcheries in the City, just lived down the street from them.

She didn't believe him though, she knew better. Ten years as an ADA in the City had taught her a lot, if nothing else that evidence without a warrant was a very very bad thing. But if someone where to tip off the cops about evidence and they could get a warrant, then it would be admissible. She knew it was a bad idea, but she had a gut feeling that the cops had missed something, something big.

She had just started to head out when Garret cornered her. "Drink?" He suggested and she found herself actually debating it for more than a split second.

"Sure." She agreed and walked out with him, and she enjoyed the feeling of his arm around her as they walked through the parking lot. She did have vague memories of high school though, going out and having her boyfriend wrap his arm around her. It was something all men did though, their way of laying claim to their territory. She had always thought it somewhat cute, and she leaned into his touch.

She started heading towards her car and he started heading towards his. They stopped in the middle of the parking lot and glared at each other. "My car." She said simply and he shook his head.

"Do you really want to risk that thing downtown? Someone could back into it, or steal it, it's definitely safer here." She grinned.

"You just want to drive." She teased, getting into his car. "But you are driving me home." She told him, and he nodded.

"What, you don't want to get left in a bar?" She gave him a playful swat. "Oh, and Renee wanted me to remind you about your testimony." She laughed.

"I swear that woman is like a rabid dog. Once she gets it into her head that someone should do something, she refuses to stop until that person is dead or does what she wants them to do." He grinned.

"You know her well?" she shrugged.

"Three years of law school together and six of working together. She came up here, I stayed in New York before heading off across the ocean." He was silent for a long time, and she lapsed into her own thoughts before looking up. "Forint for your thoughts?" He laughed.

"Nothing really." He commented and she smirked.

"And here you had me thinking I was dating a deep thinker." A smile briefly crossed his face.

"About that-" He started and her face fell. It was a record. The one at least lasted two dates, if you could call them that. And they had gone a whole day, well, almost, since they decided that they were, in fact, dating.

"What?" She asked, wondering what his reasoning was.

"It's just that I'm beginning to think I'm jinxed when it comes to relationships." She laughed.

"You're not the only one." She commented.

"I've had a marriage that was doomed from the start, and hardly a long term relationship before or since." She grinned.

"I think I win. You at least got married. I never made it that far."

"You've never been snapped up?" He asked, and she could see the hesitancy as they pulled to a halt in front of a bar.

"Well, I have, but never walked down the aisle. Gotten engaged five times to four different men." She said it nonchalantly and she saw him blanch slightly. "One was a mutual decision we were both young and good friends, nothing else, we just thought that marriage sounded fun, but once we started planning it we decided it was a bad idea. Two were assholes, and one died." She grinned. "And no, I didn't kill him."

They ordered their drinks, a scotch and a bourbon. "No other strings though, no kids?" She shook her head.

"Nope, missed that one, twice." He looked interested.

"Hard enough to conceive with all the problems associated with my bad blood. Got knocked up once, almost fell down a flight of stairs twisted funny. Lost that one and after the next one decided it didn't want to make it past three months they gave up all hope on me. Just as well, I shudder to think how my children would come out. I've been a bad enough influence to my niece and nephew." She grinned, downplaying it. She always felt a twinge of disappointment when it came to kids.

She never really particularly cared about being a mother, but it was something that she wouldn't have minded trying. But she took what life gave her, the cards she was dealt was what she had, couldn't change that. "What about you?" She asked. "Nothing you're hiding away is there? Secret girlfriends, children, midgets in your closet?" He laughed.

"A daughter. In college." They lapsed back into silence and she looked up at the TV broadcasting Sportscenter.

"Hmm, I'll take this as a sign. Mets and Cubbies won. If the Cubs win the series this year, it's definitely a sign that jinxed relationships have a chance." She said grinning. "Sox last year, Cubs this year, good thing indeed."

"Baseball fan?" He asked and she grinned.

"Born and bred a Mets fan, had season tix to Shea growing up. My dad was of the whole 'if you're going to be in America, be an American' mindset. So we were Mets fans. Of course I was happy to catch any baseball at all overseas." He grinned as they relaxed into easy conversation, back on a good topic, not one that involved their exes. "So." She started and he looked up. "Name one thing no one knows about you."

He looked up somewhat shocked. "What?" She asked. "If we're going to date we might as well know one another." He laughed and thought.

"Nothing. Everyone knows something about me. Just don't stick them all in the same room or they'll be no part of me or my past that won't be accounted for." She laughed.

"I know that feeling. Big family?" He shook his head.

"No, you?" She shrugged.

"A brother. A niece, a nephew, a great-niece. That's about it" They paused again, drinking. "So you know about my illustrious string of careers, do anything besides moonlight as Boomer and be a doc?" He shook his head. "Awe c'mon, you were in Jersey a whole month, you had to do something else down there. By the way, they've got the most wonderful med school to flunk out of, you should have gone there."

"I worked for a hotdog place down there until I could leave. They had the best root beer that I wish they'd have up here." She grinned.

"See, that's not that bad. So you played baseball, at least somewhat?" He nodded.

"High school and college. I think what killed me was my dream of being the hero." She laughed. "Seriously, wound up sitting out a whole season in college cause I tried to make the highlight reel. The fence is there for a reason, and it's not to try and jump over chasing a foul ball." She laughed.

"What happened?"

"I was chasing a foul ball and tried to jump over the fence to get to it. I got it, but my foot caught and I fell right on my shoulder and dislocated it." She grinned.

"Let it not be said that you were not fearless." She raised her glass to him. They finished off their drinks and headed back to his car. "Any other childhood dreams?" She asked and he shook his head.

"Aside from wanting to be either Batman or Robin?"

"Hey, I wanted to be Wonder Woman." He grinned. They climbed back into his car and he started heading for her house. "You know what? I still don't know the public transportation that well, why not drop me back at the mourge, I can pick up my car and get home."

He nodded and hung a left to take them back to the mourge. He dropped her in front of her car and she grinned. "Get home safe." She nodded.

"You too." She said, opening her door. "Night." She said, and he nodded.

"Night." He told her and they kissed for the first time without him being caught off guard.


	17. Chapter 17

Shot got into her car and sped out, pointing the rolls in the direction of where the house in question was. She pulled to a halt across the street from it and watched it for a long time. Under survalence, yeah, right. Whoever was supposed to be watching it had run off for donuts. Apparently with a suspect in custody they thought it unnessicary to keep an officer on watch.

She made sure no one was around before sneaking in. She opened the door with her scarf as a barrier between her fingerprints and the door. She looked inside, stepping through the police tape and over the dried blood on the floor. She made her way to the bathroom which was stained a deep brownish red. The color of dried blood. She stayed her stomach as she left. So that's where he had killed them.

How could someone have missed what had been going on? Even if they had been gagged, the sheer amount of pain they must have gone through. She had only seen one animal go through being butchered without being dead, the stun gun hadn't worked on it, and the poor thing had screamed something awful as they sliced through it's gut and lopped of it's head. These people had been concious when he had killed them, they must have been making a racket and the neighbors heard nothing.

She was sure there was more evidence here than what the police had found. A quick look through the bedroom seemed to corroborate the suspect's tale of buglary. There was all the valuables bundled together, ready to grab and run. She looked around for anything else, any more proof.

The cuts had been made with a boning knife, she knew that much. The one half of the house held nothing, and she made her way to the kitchen. It was spotless. Too spotless. No way someone on vacation would have cleaned it up this well. She found the sink empty and opened the dishwasher. There were a few plates a few cups and one knife in there that she found very interesting.

An eight inch boning knife. The murder weapon. She picked up a pot holder and picked it up. Was that a rust colored spot on it? She grinned and replaced it. She looked around in the kitchen, looking for anything else that would be a breakthrough in the case, something that would give Garret, Jordan, Bug and Nigel the upper hand in proving that the man in custody was the one they wanted, the one they needed to get.

She found nothing else though, and walking out, she felt something tell her to check the freezer. She didn't know what part of her body told her to do so, but something did, and she opened up the door with her stolen pot holder and felt her stomach roll.

There was a stack of ziplock baggies in there, each one sealed with what was unmistakably human flesh inside. She quickly closed the door and dropped the piece of fabric in her hand, barely making it outside before she found herself with her head in the bushes, her body revolting against what she had just seen.

She wiped her mouth and sat in her car for a long minute, catching her breath before heading home. She trudged up the stairs and was caught completely off guard by the pair of strong arms that wrapped themselves around her.


	18. Chapter 18

"Aaron!" She gasped as the man unwrapped his arms.

"Hey, sorry about the other night, got caught up in the city." She glared at the tall man before her. "Home you don't mind if I brought Cesar along." He gestured to her couch where a gigantic dog had taken up residence. "Oh, and your phone's been ringing, some guy called Garret, said you left your wallet." She groaned.

"You answered it?"

"Well, yeah." She collapsed on a chair, startling the mottled dog.

"You did tell him you were my brother right?" The man grinned.

"I might have forgotten that." She leaned her head back.

"Go get me my bottle of Jack, I need it." She told him, and he retreated to her kitchen.

"It's a big brother's job ti scare off guys." He teased handing her the bottle and a glass.

"Now give me the phone and pray he's still awake." She ordered, and again, her brother obliged. She dialed his number, after scrolling through caller ID.

"Hello?" The gruff voice on the other end of the line replied.

"Hey, it's me." She told him, and there was silence for a minute.

"Nothing you're hiding, right?" He commented and she laughed.

"Only my idiotic big brother." The tension broke. "He sees fit to scare off anyone who even looks like they might want to date me. But that's not the point." She curled into her chair.

"You left your wallet in my car." He told her and she nodded.

"I've heard. Do you have Woody's number though?" She heard a small chuckle.

"Was the date that bad?" She laughed.

"No, but there's something I think the cops missed in that house. You can keep a secret right?" He groaned loud and clear into the phone.

"You didn't go in there, did you?" She grinned.

"Yes, I did, and I found the murder weapon in the dishwasher, and well, not even going to mention what's in that freezer." She heard the silence again on the other end of the line while Garret processed what she told him. "If it gets out that I was in there though, that's bad. But I trust you. I'm starting to like this place, don't want to get given the boot just yet." She grinned.

'I'll call Woody right now, he knows how to keep things quiet." She laughed.

"Good. My brother didn't scare you off, did he?" She looked at the other man sitting next to his dog. "Big tough longshoreman from New York."

"No.But the more you keep talking about him the more he sounds like someone I don't want to mess with."

"Not even for me?" She said injecting every ounce of sweetness she had into her voice. "He's a big softie just like his dog. Looks big and scary but wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Maybe for you, but that's only if he scares me. I'll tell Woody about this. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow." She repeated.

"If not sooner." She yawned.

"I'm going to collapse if I don't get some sleep though."

"So sleep." He told her. "I'll call you if we need you." She grinned. "Night." She hung up and turned to her brother.

"I can crash here, right?" She rolled her eyes.

"Sure. You're the only sixty year old man out there who still acts like you're twenty though." She told him and he laughed.

"Maybe. But you ever see a ninety year old man who acts like that?" She shook her head.

"No and I don't want to. Goodnight."

"You broke into a crime scene?" Her brother asked as she started towards her bedroom.

"If I knew you were in town I would have asked you to do my dirty work for me." He grinned the same cockeyed toothy grin that she had. "Now I'm going to bed because the evidence from that may result in me getting called in in a few hours."

"Night sis." He kicked the large dog off the couch and sprawled out on it, and she found herself with a furry bedmate as the great dane took up the unused half of the bed.


	19. Chapter 19

She found herself not waking until the alarm ran, surprisingly. She showered and dressed and walked out to see a note on the kitchen table from her brother telling her that he'd gone out with Cesar and if she was free call him and they'd do lunch. She grabbed some food and stuck it in her bag, and headed to the office.

She found the mourge to be a flurry of activity. She searched for Garret and found him in the middle of the hall trying to look important as the place hustled around him. "Hey." He said when he saw her.

"Why didn't you call me in?" She asked, moving close to him. He shrugged.

"You said you wanted to sleep." She grinned.

"Thanks." She leaned against him and he wrapped an arm around her. "So, what happened?" She asked innocently staring up at him with hazelnut brown eyes.

"Apparently someone tipped off the cops that the murder weapon was in the dishwasher. And what was missing from the other bodies was in the freezer." He smirked.

"You know you could have been hurt." She grinned.

"I've been through worse, more life threatening situations." She said and she earned herself a glare. "Why Garret, would you happen to be worried about me?" The look on his face said it all, and she backed off. "Relax." She told him, and he did, slightly.

"Your brother sounds very-mean-on the phone. Had me thinking you weren't being honest." She laughed.

"That's what you get for talking to a man who was almost disowned because he wanted to be a longshoreman."

"Really?"

"Really. Mamma and Papa Fejes wanted two smart, professional kids. Instead the wound up with us two. So did we match the knife to the murders?"

"It was just a little difficult, but we did it. That dishwasher was good." Jordan walked into the office where they were and quickly backed up.

"Right, I'll come back later." The woman said, and Garret looked up.

"What do you want?" Garret asked, and the young ME smirked.

"Trace of blood on the knife, definitely confirms it, without a doubt. But our killer posted bail, judge seemed to think that two million was plenty but the guy somehow managed to scrape it together." She frowned. "Cops have an APB on him thought, he already surrendered his passport." Jordan stepped aside to let Woody in.

"Uh, Vicky, you wouldn't happen to have a brother, would you?" She looked up at the detective.

"Yeah, I do. Why?"

"Is his name Aaron?" She didn't like the look on his face. It was a deeply troubled look.

"It is, what's wrong?"

"He's alright, but-" She rolled her eyes.

"That's never a good thing. Last time I heard that my nephew was in the hospital getting four pins in his ankle." Woody looked at her with concern in his eyes.

"He came a little close to being victim number four."


	20. Chapter 20

She felt every drop of blood slide away from her as she turned a shade of ashy gray. The arm around her tightened as she all but slid to the floor. "He's OK." Woody repeated. "It's just a graze, he's in the university medical center. They just need to stitch him up and he'll be as good as new. Seems his dog chased down our Mr. McFarland." She smiled, relieved.

"I'm-I'm going to go see him. Knowing him he's crying like a baby over a little tiny scratch." She headed out and she felt the arm around her keep up. She caught Jordan mouth 'not involved my ass' behind them and she smiled to herself.

"You alright?" He asked her, and she nodded.

"Relieved Aaron's OK." He smiled at her, a comforting glance.

"you want me to drive you there?" She nodded.

"Thanks. That's his car, the Rolls, he gave it to me when I left, said he really didn't have a use for it in the city, he'd flip if I wrecked it, even if it was cause I was freaking out over him." She gave him her keys and he pulled the huge car out and drove it down to the hospital. She got out, and so did he, and his arm quickly returned to it's place around her.

She found her brother sitting on a bed, his arm in a sling. "Hey sis!" He said, seeing her, and he looked up at the man who was standing next to her. She could feel the ice between them, and she wrapped her arms around her brother, mindful of the sling. "You must be Garret." The gruff Brooklyn accent only added to the giant man's appearance of every bit the tough longshoreman he was.

The two men locked eyes for a long time, and she grinned. The human equivalent of them locking antlers. Eventually the one on the bed conceded. "You hurt my sister, I will kill you." He said and she smacked him on the arm.

"_Fasfej_. You will not." Her brother grinned. "I'm a big girl now, you might have scared off my boyfriends when I was sixteen, but that doesn't work now."

"Your ex fiances didn't seem to think I was such gentle giant." She rolled her eyes.

"_Menj a fene._" She told him, and whacked him again watching Garret shift somewhat nervously. "He's just trying to act all macho." She told him, staring pointedly at the man she was describing. "All bark and no bite."

"Speaking of which-" Her brother interrupted. "Where's Cesar?" She rolled her eyes as the doctor walked in.

"Mr. Fe-jes?" He read the chart.

"Fey-yesh." they both corrected at the same time out of force of habit. She saw both Garret and the doctor grin.

"Right, well, you're free to go, the stitches will have to be removed in ten days, and signs or numbness redness or warmth see a doctor immediately, and no heavy lifting. You can drive as soon as the stitches are taken out."

"Be glad I'm retired." He said, and got up, shaking the doctor's hand. "But what about my dog?" the doctor looked utterly confused and turned to the nurses station for advice.

"Paramedics said someone there took it to a shelter." A nurse told them and he grinned.

"Great, let's go. Poor thing's probably worried out of it's mind he hates the kennel." She rolled her eyes behind her brother's back and Garret grinned.

"Such a loving sister." She elbowed him in the side, not hard enough to dislodge his arm around her, but hard enough.

"_Seggfej_." Her brother turned. "I was talking about him, honest." She pointed to Garret.

"Hey, don't pick on me, I don't speak the language." She laughed.

"You don't want to learn from her. She can teach you to talk like a Hungarian sailor and that's about it."

She grinned. "_Menj a picsaba_."

"See?" Aaron said climbing into the passenger side of the Rolls. "You wouldn't happen to know where a shelter is do you?" She shook her head a Garret shrugged.

"There's one near Kenmore square." He pointed out and she grinned.

"A big dog person?" He shrugged.

"My daughter wanted one in the worst way." Aaron glared at him through the rearview mirror and she glared at Aaron as they reached a red light.

"You been married doc?"

"Aaron." Her tone was low and threatening.

"Divorced." Garret pointed out and she caught a faint smile on Garret's face as she again whacked her brother.

"Sorry about my brother. He's a real _meshugeneh_. You have to have put up with being related to him in order to like him."They pulled to a stop in front of the building Garret pointed out and her brother got out, followed by her.

They walked in and the woman at the desk sized them up. "May I help you?" She asked, and Aaron nodded.

"My dog, he was I think taken here. Big ol' merle Dane, answers to Cesar." The woman glared at him.

"The one that came in covered in blood." Aaron glared back.

"Yeah. Just got myself stabbed. Can I have my dog now?" The woman blanched on her faux pas and ran to the back before coming out with the dog. She laughed as she saw Garret's look when the dog came out. He'd obviously never seen a fully grown Great Dane before. The thing came up to her brother's waist and Aaron had a good three or four inches on Garret. "Be careful, Cesar doesn't like too many people." Her brother warned as Garret returned to the backseat of her car and Aaron let the dog in from the other door.

All three of them were surprised when the spotted dog looked across the seat to the other man, gave him a sniff, and collapsed with it's head in Garret's lap, glaring at the man until he started scratching it behind the ears. "Alright, well, you're not a _schmendrik _as my mother would say if even Cesar likes you." Aaron finally conceded. "But I still hold true that if my sister once comes crying to me, you will become a permanent fixture in the Boston ground." the light in Aaron's eyes betrayed his harsh words as she drove back to her place.

* * *

A/N: I'm doing them down here so I can provide definitions. Now, I don't speak a lick of Yiddish (aside from what I hear from TV and friends.), but I do speak very very laughable Hungarian, most of my Magyar vocab being insults. As for the Yiddish, they're spellings I stole from an online Yiddish slang dictionary.

_Fasfej –_ Dickhead

_Menj a fene -_Go to hell

_Seggfej_ – Asshole

_Menj a picsaba _-Kiss my ass

_Meshuggeneh­_ -Idiot, crazy person.

_Schmendrik –_ a Jerk, but it's a little harsher than that.


	21. Chapter 21

"I'm going out, I'll be back tonight." she said, grabbing her purse and her keys.

"You're awfully dressed up." He told her and she shrugged.

"It's called a date. A nice relaxing dinner. And I need it after putting up with you for the past three days." He grinned.

"Oh, no sympathy for the injured?" He complained and she just laughed. He glared mockingly at her. "You'll be back tonight, right?"

"I hope not, I'm hoping he'll whisk me away someplace warm. It should not be forty degrees in September. It's supposed to be fall, not the start of winter." She grinned momentarily lost in a daydream of surf and sand.

"Yeah, yeah."

"When are you returning to that slightly warmer place called Brooklyn?" He laughed.

"Another week. Ten days for the stitches before I can drive, remember?" She groaned.

"Bye you big mooch." She said, walking out the door.

"Bye. And don't do anything foolish. You want this one to stick around, don't you?" She flipped her brother off as she closed the door.

She walked down the three flights of stairs, beginning to regret her decision to buy the walkup. But it was a gorgeous apartment. She hopped in her car and drove to the place she was supposed to meet him, a small restaurant and bar type place that was supposed to have great food and she grinned as she felt a flutter in her stomach. She'd already gone out with him. But this was their first real date, not just drinks, going out to dinner and all that jazz.

She bobbed her head in time to the music blasting throughout the car. Jordan had gotten her hooked on one of the local rock stations, and she had to admit, they played a nice selection, it wasn't KROK but it was the next best thing. She walked in to find him sitting at a small table for two, and he got up when she walked in. She gave him a peck on the cheek in greeting, enjoying the look that crossed his face, pleasantly surprised.

"So, how're you?" she asked him and he shrugged.

"Not bad. You?" She laughed.

"Between Renee badgering me about testimony and my brother being the idiot that he is, it's driving me nuts. He won't leave and she won't let up until after the jury's reached a verdict. The trial's a good three weeks away, it's something I can work on at my own pace." She said ordering a plate of beer battered clams while he ordered chicken. She grinned. "She doesn't give up, and I'm supposed to be the stubborn one who lives up to her name." He looked confused. "Fejes means stubborn, quite true for all of us who happen to be named it." He grinned, matching her own, and they lapsed into easy conversation about everything and anything.

She enjoyed being with someone that she could talk to, she loved the sound of her own voice and she knew it so when she met someone who could match her in conversational skills, she was happy. When they finally left the restaurant she found that she didn't want the night to end. "So where'd you park?" She asked him and he shook his head.

"Place is almost impossible to find parking, grabbed a bus." She laughed.

"Tell me about it. It's twice as hard when you've got a car twice the size of normal. Took me almost ten minutes to find one that the Rolls would fit into." They got into her car and she pointed it in the direction of his house. "Just give me directions."

They kept on talking while he told her where to go and the finally wound up in front of his place, and she again felt like a teenager, not knowing how to end a date. She hated that feeling. "Night." He said, and she leaned over and kissed him.

It was a deep, passionate kiss, the type that sucks the breath right out of you. She felt a hand tangle in her hair as her lips parted to allow a questioning tongue. They were both breathless when it finally broke and she grinned. "Nightcap?" He suggested and she laughed.

"Or something else." She said and enjoyed the effect of her words on him. He all but dragged her into his home and into the bedroom their clothes falling down around them as they went.


	22. Chapter 22

She awoke the next morning to find herself wrapped tightly in his harms, nestled against him. She stirred ever so slightly, enjoying the feel o f him against her back. "Morning." He said sleepily, kissing the spot on her neck where it met her back and the bone stuck out. "Pretty tattoo." She grinned.

"Thank you." She said as he kissed it again. She regretted getting it where she did, a picture of a unicorn on her upper back, and she had to be very careful of how high her collar was because of it, but she thought it was gorgeous. And so did he, that was a good thing. She rolled over in his arms and kissed him on the lips, playfully pulling away when he tried to deepen the kiss. "What time is it?" She asked, and he squinted over her shoulder to read the clock.

"seven thirty." He read and she rolled her eyes.

"_Fasz kivan._" She groaned, sitting up.

"What is it?" He asked, watching her get out of bed, and she found him to be enjoying the view.

"I have a meeting with Renee at eight. I still have to get home, shower, and get dressed. Not to mention putting up with my brother being, well, my brother." He grinned.

"You're never going to make it, it takes twenty minutes to get back to your place." She frowned, knowing he was right.

"Can I borrow your shower then?" She asked, and he grinned wolfishly.

"Am I allowed to join you?" She kissed him.

"As tempting as that offer sounds, I think I may have to take a rain check otherwise I have a feeling I'm going to be very very late for my meeting with Renee." He grinned, knowing she was right. She slid inside the bathroom and enjoyed the feeling of hot water washing over her. She laughed when she saw the small travel sized shampoo on the shower rack. Not like he had much need for it, it was obviously there in case of visitors.

She found her clothes had been collected and laid out on the bed and she grinned, getting dressed. She tossed her hair up into a messy bun, knowing that she was definitely going to have to style it later. "Bagel?" he asked pulling one out of the toaster oven.

"You are wonderful." She told him, kissing him and grabbing the bagel from his hand. She forgot about it for a long moment though, too involved in the kiss to pay the world around her any heed but as soon as her senses returned she broke it off. "I got to go though, I've had to put up with Renee's teasing enough already." He grinned and kissed her again and she slid out of the house, and into her car. "see you later." She called.

"See you." He repeated, watching her pull off in her giant green car.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N-Another burst of fic from me today, have the house to myself, going to be finishing up this today, writing another, and working on summer reading while I'm at it...

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Renee gave her a knowing smirk as she walked in. "Someone was having fun last night." She glared at her longtime friend.

"Prove it." The DA laughed.

"Hmm, let's see. You're five minutes late, you pulled in from the opposite direction of your house, but not the opposite direction of Garret's house, you're wearing the clothes you wore yesterday and you're not making me gag with that moisturizer you use that I'm deathly allergic to." She grinned sheepishly. "I'm going to assume you were doing something last night.

"More like someone, but close enough." She laughed as her friend allowed a shocked look to cross her face for a second.

"The two of you really hit it off." She shrugged.

"Compared to some of the other crap I've dated? Garret's not bad at all." She grinned, hoping to drag this topic out for as long as possible. She didn't particularly like to talk about her boyfriends, or her ex boyfriends, but when she had the option of them or her still barely started testimony, she'd rather talk about her adventures in dating. She knew what she had to say on the stand, that was what was important, of course Renee would want to see what she would say, but she was good at stringing words together.

"You've had some pretty interesting crap. Didn't you date a mobster?" She laughed.

"Guy? Yeah, I did. He was the one that kept trying to get me to work for Gambeski, Lanzoni and Collins." She laughed. "What's the point in dating a guy if he's not interesting?"

"You'd date a werewolf, completely unafraid of being seriously injured simply because he would be interesting." She laughed.

"Well, you can't say someone who cuts up dead bodies for a living isn't interesting. And he's got a wannabe mysterious thing going on where he tries to be like Bogart. He tries to be a clock and dagger and it's really cute." Renee laughed at her characterization of Garret.

"Does he know you go around calling him cute, and cloak-and-dagger?" She laughed.

"I'm sure, like most men, he'd enjoy the cloak and dagger bit but he'd object to being in the same class as teddy bears and puppies. But I'm pretty sure he'll endure it as well."

"Right, well, about your testimony-"

"Segways 101 was another class you failed." She grinned.

"Yeah, well, this is important, I don't give a shit about a good segway." She laughed.

"And it's all up here." She tapped her temple, and the DA rolled her eyes.

"You haven't even looked over the probable questions, have you?" She grinned.

"I plead the fifth."

"Vicky, the trial's three weeks away."

"I know, and I'll be ready to testify, don't worry. You're looking at the queen of working under pressure." Renee laughed.

"Right,you're the one that started your term paper at five am for a class that was a ten, and still got an A on it." She grinned.

"If I had started it a month before I would have failed it."

"The day you do something ahead of when it's due is the day I'll be throwing snowballs in hell, cause I would've died from the sheer shock of it." She laughed, her friend's dry sense of humor never failed to bring a smile to her face even when most really didn't care for the DA in question.

"I do plan ahead. Just not a lot. Like I plan to go somewhere, and I go. And I know what I'm going to do tonight when I get home." Renee gave her an interesting look that just begged her to tell. "Go home, pour a nice glass of bourbon, and tell Aaron to leave, or else. He's going to kill me when I get home."

"That bad?" She nodded.

"I don't care if I have to drive him to the city myself."

"You are going to work on your testimony as well, right?" She grinned.

"Yes boss. He's going to get convicted, he stabbed my brother in broad daylight, it's an easy open and closed case. I'm honestly surprised he didn't plea out." The DA shrugged.

"Didn't have you pressuring him."

"Quite fond of my job now if that's a thinly veiled offer." Renee grinned.

"You mean you're quite fond of the people in that job. Mostly one person." She grinned as well.

"Well, that's always a plus." They headed downstairs.

"I think you might want to go home and face your brother now before facing your coworkers. Especially if you're going to roll in this late with that whole "I got laid" grin on your face when I'm absolutely positive Garret's got the same one and you're wearing what you're wearing yesterday, at least a change of clothes allows you to downplay it a little bit." She whacked her friend on the arm.

"yeah, they do have their suspicions about us." Renee laughed.

"Suspicions? You hang all over him and grin whenever he's in the room. You're head over heels for him." She grinned.

"I'll see you." She said walking out.

"Bye." Renee called after her. "Work on that damn testimony, at least read over what you're going to get asked!" She laughed, nodding, knowing it would never get done.


	24. Chapter 24

"You could have called." She opened the door to find her brother sprawled on her couch.

"I'm a fully grown woman, I don't need to call. Especially call someone that's not supposed to be in my house." She said pointedly, walking to her bedroom. Her brother shook his head, a lock of longish curly grey hair falling into his face.

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean your big brother doesn't worry."

"Right now you should be more worried about getting yourself and your damn dog packed up. You're going home tomorrow if I have to drive you. No ifs ands or buts." He pouted.

"But I'm your big brother."

"And you're going to be my big brother six hours away in your nice little place in Brighton Beach where you're far far away from me." She paused and glared at him. "Now I'm going get dressed and get to work." She said closing the door behind her, and pulling down a fresh set of clothes out of her closet. "Be ready to leave tomorrow morning." He rolled his eyes.

"Fine." he finally conceded, sitting back on the couch with his dog. "Hear that Cesar? Evil Ziggy's kicking us out to make room for her mean ol' boyfriend." He cooed to the dog, ruffling it's ears.

"Don't call me Ziggy." She said in a near growl, hating the childhood nickname that her brother had for her. "And I'll be back after work." She said, giving the dog, then her brother a pat on the head.

"Szia." He called with a wave and and she nodded and returned the gesture, closing the door behind her.

She felt bad about kicking her brother out, but she was sick of his "I know best" routine. Just because he had a relationship that worked was no reason for him to act as if he knew better than she did. She was more likely to twist that-she'd had more relationship experience than he had. After all, he had only dated two women before meeting the one for him, she still hadn't met the one.

Just because Aaron had been married for thirty years was no excuse. He had no right to intrude on her love life. Just because he had two wonderful children and had a nice little perfect family was no reason for him to think that he had every right to be the overbearing older brother and scare off everything that dated her.

He had done it with his daughter too, but now Rachel was happily married, with a child of her own. She groaned as she remembered that she had to get or make something for the second kid that was on the way. And Aaron had long since given up on his son, not even taking over the family business back in the old country had toned down the boy's playboy nature.

So Aaron thought it would be his duty to stand guard over her, as she was the last female member of the family left alone. He made up for his lack of a love life by making sure that everyone she dated was up to snuff. But she knew that he didn't even want to look for someone else, since Miriam died he hadn't even looked at another woman.

She frowned as she thought of her nephew and the state of the shop. It was in good hands, she could trust the shop to Lazer. She doubted her brother thought of what his son would pick as a nickname when the boy had been named. Aaron had assumed that he would go with Elie, but instead the boy had opted for a more "cool" variant on Eliezer, very much the same way she had opted to Americanize her name to something that most could pronounce.

She hated her brother if only because she had gotten saddled with the burden of the unpronounceable names. Aaron was a name most could pronounce, it was common enough. Hers, well, she'd hardly seen it as a name even in Hungary. It was common enough over there for its meaning, but there were very few who were named it. And she also had a middle name that her brother teased her mercilessly over.

She just wished her grand-niece would grow up and be old enough for Aaron to agonize over her, but sadly the little girl was barely three. It would be a long time until Sophia would enter the dating scene. So until then she had to put up with her brother focusing on her and her alone when it came to what she chose to date.

She just hoped that maybe she found someone worth keeping around this time, that hopefully she had found the one for her, the one that she would want to be with forever. She just hoped she wasn't rushing into a relationship with him with the thought that if he was going to be the one she could just jump right into things, her past experience had taught her that that was a horrible horrible mindset to have.

She parked her car in a spot and got out heading up to her office, putting all of her doubts about her relationship out of her mind. Right now what she had to worry about was the seemingly never-ending stack of paperwork.


	25. Chapter 25

"Hey" she walked in and tossed her purse onto the desk. Jordan and Bug were busy pulling two bodies out of the crypt as she walked in.

"Hey." Jordan replied, with just a bit too much happiness in her voice, and she glared at the young ME for a second before grinning.

"Anything good?" She asked, looking over the two covered bodies. Jordan shook her head.

"A heart attack and a gang banger. You need to watch that one?" Bug asked and she shrugged.

"Technically, yes, do I want to? No. I'll stop by just so I can say you didn't break any rules with it." Bug nodded wheeling the body out followed by Jordan.

She sat down and flipped open another file. She ignored the tingling in her leg, and left the file on her desk just in case she froze again, glad when she didn't, but the tingling remained. She frowned and popped another aspirin, rubbing her leg, not liking the warmth that radiated from it. That wasn't a good thing at all.

But there was nothing she could do, she may have been surrounded by doctors, but it wasn't like one of them could write her a prescription. And she didn't particularly want to spend hours with her head in a toilet. Shame the only things that worked were things that made her violently ill.

She got up and walked up to the autopsy room where Bug had just gotten started on the autopsy of the guy who had been killed. It was an easy open-shut thing that she wished she didn't have to watch. There wasn't anything to screw up on it. A young guy, he was about 19, shot dead, completely drugged up, it was pretty obvious what had happened.

She easily jotted down what Bug commentated, and allowed her thoughts to wander off to the office down the hall. She didn't want to spend another night alone after what had happened last night, but she also was afraid of rushing things. Every other time she had rushed into a relationship things had gone badly. She wanted this one to work, she wanted this one to be the one.

Four failed fiancées and five engagements. She didn't want to add another one to her tally. She knew that she didn't love him, no one could be in love after knowing someone for a week. Thoughts of love at first sight may have been nice and fun and pleasant, but she knew it wasn't true. It was lust, plain and simple. She wanted him, and she knew it, and he knew it. She wanted to find true love, but she had long since given up the hope of finding it.

But lust would do. It did well in the past. She wanted him, she was infatuated with him, that was what mattered, live for the moment, right? She kept telling herself that over and over again, she wanted the relationship to be something but it all the signs and markings of her past engagements. And none of those had worked out.

"Fejes, Fejes, Vicky!" She looked up to find Bug trying to get her attention.

"What, oh, sorry, kinda let my mind wander and it got lost." She smiled slightly.

"I'm done with him." She nodded, looking down to find that even though her mind had taken a vacation, her hand had not.

She closed the file, clipped the pen to it and started back down to her desk, but decided to stop along the way. She knocked on the glass door marked 'Private' and stepped inside. "Hey." She said curling on the couch. He got up and joined her.

"Hey." He answered, and she leaned against him.

"Just stopped by." He looked at her, knowing full well she had some sort of ulterior motive. "To avoid paperwork." She grinned. "And I'm not going to be here tomorrow." He gave her a questioning glance. "I'm kicking my brother out and since he can't drive on his own, I'm driving him back and hopping a flight back up here." He chuckled slightly, her body shaking with his, and she enjoyed the feeling, the warmth radiating off of him.

"The whole protector thing getting to you?" He asked and she nodded.

"What is it with you men?" She asked and he shrugged. "His kids are all grown up so I'm the one left for him to pick on. Wish he'd find someone himself so he'd remove himself from my love life." She stared up at him, her dark brown eyes meeting his, and he gave her a light kiss. She grinned up at him. "I'd invite you along but then Aaron would try to play tour guide simply to keep you away from me." He smirked.

"I'll take a rain check."

"Thought so. It could be worse, I could be dragging you down there and you could sound like a typical Bostonian which would mean that you'd get hung drawn and quartered by Yankee fans. Just be glad I'm not one of them." He grinned.

"Why's that?"

"Cause no self-respecting Yankee fan would be doing-" She kissed him. "-This." Another kiss, " To a Sox fan." They kissed once more, this one deep and passionate and the door opened to reveal Jordan who promptly walked back out.

"I'll come back later."

"What'd you want Jordan?" Garret asked as she quickly pulled away, both of them trying not to look embarrassed.

"Nothing that can't wait until you're not otherwise-preoccupied." He glared at his coworker. "I was just seeing if you'd be willing to do a pickup, some guy fried himself at the local theater messing with the lights and I'm supposed to be meeting Woody for drinks, I'll get Bug or Nigel to do it." She walked away. "I'll leave you two alone." The door closed again and he laughed, louder as they heard Jordan tell Nigel that he owed her.

"Don't tell me they had an office pool on us." She groaned and he grinned and nodded.

"There's an office pool on everything here. I've got fifty riding on Jordan and Woody finally getting over themselves by the end of the month." She gave him a playful swat.

"Horrible, detestable, should go in my report simply because I was not informed of this illegal betting. Renee would be pissed for the exact same reason, she'd want in." He grinned and kissed her again.

"Drinks after work?" he asked and she smiled, getting up.

"How about we skip the drinks and go right to the part that involves you, me and the bed?" She suggested, sliding out of the office before she could get a response.


	26. Chapter 26

"This is why I hate you." She stretched as she got out of the car, walking into the rest stop. She looked over what wonderful artery-clogging fast food they had, getting on line.

"Why?" He asked, stepping behind her.

"Because you ruin diets." He laughed. "And you drag me down to the City." Another laugh. "And because you drive me absolutely nuts."

"Am I really that bad?" He asked, pouting at her and she nodded. She bit into the giant hamburger with delight.

"I forgot how good Burger King was. They don't have that many of them near Vep." He laughed.

"It's wonderful, isn't it? But I can't be that bad."

"You are, be glad Garret realizes you're just a big softie. If you scared him off you'd be dead right now." He grinned a roguish grin, the same grin their father had.

"Sorry, but it's my way of making sure your boyfriends are prepared. If they can put up with me, they can put up with you. I'm looking out for them just as much as I'm looking out for you." She glared at him and he laughed.

"So Garret's fully prepared for the wrath that is me then?" He nodded.

"He's better than some of the trash you've brought home. For a goy, I think even mama would approve of him." She grinned. Her brother had only approved of two other men that she had dated, one had been the biggest asshole on the planet but Eddie had played everyone he met for a fool, he had charmed his way into her life, charmed her family, everyone believed that he was this wonderful man, and when she finally realized what he really was the snake moved on to sink his teeth into her best friend. That had gotten very ugly and she wound up being the one going 'I told you so' after the dust had cleared. The other one to have gotten her brother's approval had been the only one to come back for a second round, and both times they had decided that they were better off without being involved.

They ate the rest of their meal in silence. For all their teasing of each other, she and her brother really got on well, unlike some siblings that she knew. The decade plus between them helped, he had all but gone on to college when she had come into the world so there hadn't been any of the messy room-sharing spats, or the toy stealing spats that plagued most of her friends with their siblings.

And they both knew when to keep quiet, although she loved to talk and her brother was more the quiet type, they both knew when to stay silent, and this was one of those times, when they were busy with introspection, musing on their own lives. They finished eating and her brother picked up an extra burger for Cesar and they headed out again, the dog wolfing down the food quickly.

She found the drive to be pleasantly uneventful. There wasn't much to see on 95, just the towns that they passed through. Before she knew it they were in the city, pulling up to the little house in Brighton Beach. He had moved their for his wife who's family lived down the street, and he refused to leave even though he had no reason to stay there. "So you really think Garret's a good guy?" She asked as he got out and dragged the lazy dog with him.

"One of the best you've dated yet, although that doesn't say much. He may be a goy, but he's not a bad one. Like I said, even mama would approve." She grinned, her mother had hated all the non-Jewish boys she had brought home, being an old traditionalist. Her father had learned very quickly not to interfere with the arguments that she and her mother would have.

"Hey, he is a doctor." Her brother laughed. Her mother had constantly told her after she had failed miserably at being a doctor that if she wasn't going to be one to marry one.

"I don't quite think the type mamma had in mind." he said, flicking the same curl of gray hair out of his face. He took after their father, with the tight curly hair and his grin. She favored her mother's stern look, but had inherited her father's laughing eyes. She got out of the car and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"He does make a fair amount of money. Those guys make close to six figures." Her brother grinned.

"Remind me to get very close to those people. Who wouldn't take pity on poor me?" She laughed and shoved him towards his door.

"My plane leaves in half an hour, I'll see you." She said walking through the familiar Brooklyn streets until she found a taxi and found herself boarding a plane from JFK to Logan, popping another two aspirin as she felt her leg go numb again.


	27. Chapter 27

A/N so this chapter wound up quite modified because it seems halfway through I completely forgot about the whole trial of our serial killer. Comes from writing at 11pm during commercial breaks in CJ reruns, especially cause I'm so busy doodling random observations of the Garret/Jordan variety in the margins I'm prone to forget large chunks of plot. Thanks to jtbwriter for not only being the only one to consistently review (hint hint) but for pointing that out!

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"Hey, I just landed at Logan." No sooner had the plane touched down and the pilot had given the all clear for cell phones had she whipped hers out and dialed his number.

"Hey, enjoy the City, as you so fondly call it?" She grinned.

"Dropped him off, got on the plane." She made her way towards the exit, trying to fight her way through the swarm of people at the baggage claim. Why she had to fight through them when she had no luggage she had no clue, but airports never quite made a lot of sense.

"I just finished up with the last bit of paperwork, want me to pick you up?" She shrugged.

"I can catch a cab."

"It's nothing." She shrugged. "I can go for a drink though. Hang on, Renee's calling, probably wondering if I worked on my goddamn testimony on the plane. I hate it the way she gets so wrapped around a case. I'm a workaholic, but even I'm not that bad." A laugh was heard from the other end of the line.

"I'll be there in about twenty." She nodded and sat on a bench, ending the call with the one and starting the call with the other.

"Trial's gotten pushed up to Thursday." She sat for a second processing the information.

"Thursday, as in, two days away?"

"Thursday, as in the day after tomorrow." That was not good.

"Right." She said, not being able to say anything else.

"So you need to figure out what all that medical jargon is, and be able to tell the court all of it. Especially cause you're the first one up." She groaned.

"Why me?"

"Because I figured I'd be doing you a favor getting you out of the way." She rolled her eyes.

"Gee, thanks."

"Vicky, c'mon, we need to win this."

"It's not hard to do so, but if it makes you happy, I'll spend all day tomorrow going over all those fancy little medical terms and pointing out all the gruesome details."

"Something tells me you'll be doing that with one certain doctor." She laughed.

"Speak of the devil, I've got to go." She said as she noticed the familiar SUV pulling up. She heard Renee laugh as she hung up. "Hey." She kissed him as she climbed in.

"You look upset, your brother that bad?" She laughed.

"No, just that the trial got moved to Thursday. Which means I have to spend all day tomorrow wading through the case files and making sense of all the various injuries." She looked at him hopefully.

"Let me guess, you would like me to help." She grinned.

"What? You're the chief, you know all this stuff, been a long time since I was in med school, you, me, your couch, and work." He thought about it.

"Aren't you supposed to be the one making sure that work gets done?" She laughed.

"Work will get done, I've got no choice but to actually do work tomorrow, as I can't go into that courthouse knowing nothing. Why do you guys have to be such rule breakers? If it wasn't that Bug is the only ME working for you whose competency can not be called into question I wouldn't have to be stressing over this." He smiled. "No offense to you."

"None taken." He said, and they lapsed into silence. She grinned, the grin of a hopeless fool in love.

No, not love. Infatuation. She knew that's all it was. She wanted it to be love, but she knew the difference between love and lust, and that it was foolish to confuse the two, that mistaking lust for love lead to far too many broken hearts. But he had all the things that her previous fiancées had.

He was good looking, if in an unconventional way. He had a good job, he was no stranger to steady relationships, he was smart, witty, had a great sense of humor, everything that all her previous flames had been. The more she thought about their relationship the more the doubts creeped in.

He was so much like all of her previous boyfriends, he was another one in the string. Just like them, good looking, nice, humble enough to not be an ass but he knew how to take a compliment, he was good at what he did, and he had a good job, he seemed to enjoy being with her. It was everything her previous boyfriends, every single man who's ring she had worn on her finger had been.

But she put those thoughts from her mind, she was happy when she was around him. She couldn't second guess her relationship, not when she had a more pressing issue, namely the trial. She had him now, that was important, he made her happy, she needed to be happy to put up with Renee badgering her about making sure she didn't screw up the medical bits. So she put all thoughts out of her mind as she invited her into her house for a drink.


	28. Chapter 28

"Don't you think my bed is better?" She told him sleepily as they awoke. She snuggled closer to him, kissing him on the neck.

"You have three flights of stairs to reach this bed. I have none." She grinned. She rested her head on his chest, using him as a pillow, tracing lazy circles through the patch of hair there with a finger.

"Walking's good exercise." She told him and he chuckled.

"I can think of better." He said flipping them over with one swift movement, kissing her passionately. She fought back a round of giggles. "What's so funny?" He asked and she grinned.

"Just the fact that even fully grown men only think of sex." He grinned and nibbled her neck.

"Just cause I'm a fully grown one doesn't mean I'm not a man." She laughed as his hands found a ticklish spot on her stomach.

"So I've noticed." She said, capturing his lips with hers. "But we might be better off doing this is the shower, kill two birds with one stone. We actually have work to do." He nodded and they moved across the bedroom to the bathroom, kissing the whole way.

It took them quite a long time to get to the point where they were using the shower for it's intended purpose, but it certainly went quicker than it would if they hadn't put the walls to good use. They got out, drying each other off. "Shit." He mumbled. "I don't have anything to wear." She grinned.

"You could just change into scrubs once you're at work." He smiled.

"I keep a spare shirt there as a just-in-case." She grinned. "This wasn't the just-in-case I had in mind, but."

"It's a very good just in case." She said, kissing him and shrugging her way into a skirt which he zipped for her. "Good thing you drove here though. One less piece of gossip." They had walked down to the parking lot. She gave him a quick kiss. "I'll see you really soon. To do something quite mundane, like work, but that's a good thing." she got into her car and pulled off.

Again, her doubts came back to her. When she was with him she felt so happy, so carefree. True love should feel different, like love, not like the carefree giddiness that came from a schoolgirl's crush. Things had gone too far too fast for it to be love, it was only infatuation. Lust. Nothing else.

She grinned when she realized that even though he had left after her he had beaten her there. But he had the home team advantage. He knew all those little side streets that took minutes off a morning commute. She knew the way she went, and that was it. She knew how to get from point A to point B, but she only knew one way to do so.

She put all her thoughts of doubting her relationship to the back of her mind yet again. She needed to spend today working, and working with him. She could second guess their relationship once his this trial was over and she could waste her time debating her love life. But until then she needed to spend today going over every last detail so that whatever questions Renee or the defense threw at her she could answer.


	29. Chapter 29

A/N the trial had a good advantage. It's padded out a chapter that wasn't even half a page to three pages. Enjoy!

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Renee breezed in without even knocking to find the two of them curled on his couch, surprisingly with files in hand. She grinned when she saw her friend appear. "See, I can work and prepare. I was a workaholic at one point in my life you know." Renee grinned at her.

"Right. Just making sure that you were doing that. Anything good and juicy that I can quiz you about up there?" She shrugged.

"Nothing extremely good. I mean, the case pretty much speaks for itself." Renee took up residence in a chair and faced the couple.

"And there's no doubt that this is our guy?" She nodded.

"DNA puts him with each victim. We found the murder weapon and the missing body parts in the house." Garret said, and she nodded.

"Good. Cause forensics are the one thing that the defense can't tear apart." She grinned.

"Not for lack of trying." Memories of some of the cases she had sprang to mind.

"No, you're right about that." She could tell the Garret was just a little uncomfortable, having one woman curled against him and his ex sitting across from him. The two woman exchanged a smirk as they both realized what they were putting the man through. Ten, fifteen years ago this would have been their idea of fun.

It still was. Although they had grown up some and they weren't quite as childish with it, it still was quite fun to see men squirm thanks to them. And the way Garret was moving next to her they knew that they were succeeding. He kept shifting, and bouncing his leg, looking like the second he could find an excuse to escape he would.

She was half tempted to steer the topic of conversation onto him, but she wasn't that evil It would be the surefire way to end their relationship, she had a feeling of it. And she didn't want that, at least she didn't think she did. She wanted a relationship, but at the same time she kept second guessing what it was that they had.

"Are you two going to say something or are you just going to sit there driving me crazy?" The two women burst out laughing.

"I think that was the desired effect." She said, snuggling closer to him, all the while ensuring that Renee didn't look uncomfortable.

"Brings back fond memories." Renee said with a grin.

"Right. Well, let's reminisce later." Garret suggested and they grinned, refocusing on the case at hand.

While they went over and over the information, Renee tossing probable questions at her, she allowed her mind to wander. Watching her boyfriend squirm had been fun. Her boyfriend. Did she really think him that? It had all started with dinner, that was really just an improvised thing, she had been expecting Aaron to show up and he didn't, and she really did feel bad about putting that food to waste.

And then she had asked him to show her around. That had been fun, and she had kissed him, left him on her doorstep. Teased him into wanting more. And he wanted it. But she was still unsure of what she wanted, if she just wanted a fling, of if she wanted more, if she wanted a relationship.

But being here the two friends with the man between them brought back memories of a happier time when they were a bunch of crazy overworked law students, and then crazy, overworked ADA's who would pass boyfriends back and forth the way the Knicks passed a basketball. There were few men in New York who hadn't dated or heard of the wonder duo. Then as they got older they started getting involved in more serious relationships and the passing of boyfriends ground to a near halt.

She frowned as she remembered the last one to have gone through the swap. If there was one kink in their friendship it had been him. The man that had dragged Renee up to Boston, and the one that had almost torn their friendship apart. She didn't want Garret to be the second. What was the old phrase? Chicks before dicks? Far too true. Eddie had been the one to shatter their friendship, it was only after Renee had realized that she hadn't been trying to sabotage the relationship that the DA had with her ex that they had grudgingly made up.

"Vicky-hello? Let your mind out to wander and it got lost did it?" She grinned.

"Sorry."

"I thought when I started getting the monotonous answers you had your mind on something else." Renee gave her a knowing smirk. "I might as well leave, it's getting close to closing time an I've got some stuff to wrap up at the office. I'll see you tomorrow." She grinned and the two woman hugged before Renee left the two of them alone.

She stayed curled against him for a long moment, just enjoying the feel of him against her. "Garret?" She finally asked looking up at him.

"Hmm?" He met her gaze and she shied back away from him.

"Do you think we're rushing things? Too much of a good thing, too soon?" She could see the confusion in the dark brown eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I think we're diving headfirst into the shallow end. We've known each other for what? Barely two weeks. We've gone out eight of those fourteen days and well, it feels like we're doing all this now and there's going to be nothing left, that things are just going to fizzle out." She could see the concern in his eyes, the trace of hurt.

"So what do you want to do about it?" This was the part she didn't want, this was the part where she had to come up with something to do, something that should happen about it.

"Slow it down a bit, relax. " She suggested, and he nodded. There was resignation in his eyes, he was conceding this to her.

"Alright." His voice was terse, quiet, he was fighting to keep in check.

"Garret, it's not you-" she chuckled bitterly. "Or me, even. It's just I don't want this to be something that's great for a month and then three weeks from now we both realize it was just a fling." She got up and headed for the door. "I like you, I really do, it's just, well, I've had so many bad relationships and this feels like every single one of them, I don't want you to be fiancée number five, engagement number six." She said, walking out, wondering if that really was such a good decision.


	30. Chapter 30

A/N right, another chapter, slowly but surely advancing the plot...we're in the home stretch, there's only three sheets left of rough draft!

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She paced back and forth in her office. Again, calling it her office, it wasn't hers, only the desk was hers, but years of having her own office had gotten her into thinking that way. She looked up to see Jordan walk in. "Hi." She said, still pacing back and forth.

"Hey. Leg fall asleep?" She laughed.

"No, badly in need of nicotine." Jordan laughed.

"You smoke?" She shook her head.

"Haven't in ten years, but every now and then-"

"You feel like you're going to snap if you don't have a cancer stick." She grinned and nodded.

"Right on. Know the feeling" Jordan grinned.

"Smoked for almost a decade." She laughed.

"That's nothing, I smoked for twenty, chain smoked even. At my best, or worst, depending on how you look at it I could go through a pack in a sitting." Jordan looked impressed.

"I could barely do three." She laughed.

"It's a practiced skill. In med school I was at almost three packs a day. But that was back in the day when you could smoke in class. And some lectures you needed a smoke." Jordan laughed. She rubbed the back of her hand, hoping that it really would work to relieve her craving. She wanted to go through a pack in very quick sucession right about then. "Quit when I disappeared overseas, didn't carry Camels over there."

"Blame Garret, he started trying to get me to quit from before he even knew me." She forced a smile on her face. Garret. The one man she didn't want to think about now, the one man she was trying to drive from her brain. She wanted to forget about him, put him out of her mind, focus on the trial that was now an hour away. It was far too early to want a pack of cigarettes, it was barely nine.

Had she so far gone a half day without him? Apparently so. A full day would be a better achievement the way he kept running amok in her mind. She kept thinking her way down to his office, she wanted to go in there and said maybe what she suggested was a bad idea and jump his bones right then, but she wasn't going to. She had more self control than that.

She wanted to make sure he was the One, that this was love, not lust. And at the moment all signs were pointing to lust and not love. She wanted him, she craved him, she wanted nothing more than to pin him to his couch and have him right there in his office. That was definitely a sign of lust.

"You wanna do breakfast? We can stop each other from going out and sucking down an entire carton of Camels." She laughed.

"Yeah, that'd be good, I've got the trial in an hour though." As they walked to the elevator she shook her head. "How do you guys do it?"

"Do what?" Jordan asked as they headed down to the first floor.

"Eat. And eat. And eat. In the two weeks I've been here I've eaten out more than I usually do in three months." She grinned. "I'm going to be a five hundred pounds before I retire." Jordan shrugged.

"You get used to it, I guess. And lots of walking." She laughed.

"I have a third floor walkup, I've got the walking thing down." Jordan grinned.

"Second story. Annoying after a day on your feet, but worth it for the exercise." She nodded.

"Why I don't mind paper pushing, nice, relaxing, mindless work behind a desk." Jordan mimed a puking motion.

"Hate paperwork. With a passion."

"You get to be an old lady and mind it less and less."

"You're not old, you're younger than Garret." Again, Garret came up, and again, she fought the urge to run back to the building up the nine flights of steps and drag him into the nearest bed.

"Something to tell myself on my birthday." Jordan laughed.

"That coming up?" She thought.

"Two weeks, the twentieth." Jordan grinned.

"Not something to tell me. Unless of course you want the whole mourge to sing Happy Birthday." She laughed and faked a death glare.

"I hate having my birthday then, right smack in the middle of the high holy month." Jordan looked interested.

"The only two days I show up to synagogue are Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana, the only other time I went was when I was dating the Rabbi. And then only for the ulterior motive." Jordan grinned. "But the only other Jew I've found I don't want to be within a fifty mile radius of and that's Slokum. Evil evil man. Deserves to have all ten plagues sent upon him." Jordan laughed.

You dated a Rabbi?" She shrugged.

"Another ex-fiancée." Jordan looked interested.

"What happened to him?" She frowned.

"The closest one to actually getting married to, for me. He kicked though, a month before the wedding." Jordan frowned.

"Too bad." She laughed.

"I don't think I could've standed being around all that religion. You're looking at someone who got thrown out of Hebrew school for questioning the Torah." Jordan laughed as they walked into a Starbucks and both ordered vente lattes, needing all the caffeine they could get.

"This is what I missed about this country. The caffeine. Coffee's just not as-"

"Coffee-like?" Jordan suggested and she nodded.

"Bingo." They took a table and wolfed down bagels with their coffee, trying to get as much energy into her as possible before being forced to sit through an incredibly boring trial.


	31. Chapter 31

A/N, don't worry this will be finished by tomorrow cause I leave on Thursday. And I'm not going to be around at all until late on the fourteenth. But you can grab my yahoo address and email me on that, I can check that one from my phone...

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"What the hell's going on with you? You seemed distracted during the trial and every time I've seen you the past week you look as if you're minds in a completely different spot. You're not thinking of going back to Hungary, are you?" She laughed and shook her head.

"No, my brain's not THAT far away." She commented, almost absently. Renee had a point though, her brain was constantly drifting away into daydreams.

"So what is it? Two weeks ago you were incredibly happy. Now you look distant and I wouldn't say upset, but just not all there. What happened between you and Garret." She shrugged. "I wouldn't say fight, because you'd either be bragging about how you tore him to shreds or upset cause he'd have beaten you. So what is it?"

"No, it just felt-like too much too soon, you know? Like if we went into this headfirst we didn't know whether or not we were diving into the deep end or the shallow end. So I thought maybe we should slow down."

"To a grinding halt." She grinned sheepishly at her friend's truth.

"I'm beginning to regret that choice." Renee looked at her.

"Hon, there's hardly a day when I wonder what would have been different if Eddie and me, well, I mean I don't regret it cause I got Jamie, but there are times when I wonder what would have happened." She gave her friend a good look, afraid that the DA would want to lay claim on the man again, but it seemed as if Renee realized the direction her thoughts were going, and grinned. "You got yourself a great catch, but you seem to be content leaving him hooked without doing anything." she laughed.

"And I'm reminded why my brother always laughed when you came along on fishing trips."

"I always thought he was laughing at you." They both grinned. "But just go back and tell him screw going slow, if only for our sake here at the DA's office and the police, because none of you guys can have successful love lives the mourge has slowed to just as grinding of a halt as your relationship. Between Jordan and Woody not getting anything done, Bug and Framus and Lilly and Seeley in that no-one-quite-knows-what's-going-on thing it's slow going on any homicides." She laughed.

"Framus, Bug, Lilly, and Seeley. That is a foursome I didn't want to picture. Although Seeley's not a bad looking guy."

"Complete asshole." She shrugged.

"When has that turned me off before? Or you for that matter?" Renee shrugged. "Speaking of which, now that we've solved my relationship problems, you look like you're on your last nerve." Rene shrugged.

"Just stress." She said, reaching into a drawer and removing a gigantic book from inside of it. "And this is for you." She looked down at it and back up at Renee.

"The Massachusetts bar exam." She read.

"Yeah, well, I just lost an ADA and between Jamie and having to reassign cases left and right, and people clamoring over why if the state has a budget deficit we can afford to pay you when obviously Garret's error was a one-time thing long time ago and it won't happen again."

"So you want me to become a new ADA." Renee shrugged.

"It would be nice. Hell, I can even fancy up your title. You've had the experience."

"Ten years worth, but I haven't practiced in ten years."

"You had to do contracts and whatnot over there, right? Call it business law." She laughed.

"A lawyer to the core, Renee, you're a lawyer to the core." Her friend grinned.

"Think about it, will you, I need the help, and I don't want to have to can you cause I've got the governor telling me that we don't have room in the budget to pay someone your salary for an unnecessary position, it was you or an ADA. And luckily one of my ADA's decided they wanted to jump into a private practice."

"Same salary, same benefits?" Renee nodded.

"Better title than "watchdog to the office of the chief medical examiner."" She laughed.

"Right. I'll flip through this." She whacked the book.

"You're scheduled to take it in three weeks." She glared at the dark haired woman behind the desk.

"I never said yes."

"Hey, it's only the bar exam." She rolled her eyes.

"At least I only had to take it once." Her friend glared at her.

"I was taking it hungover the first time!" She laughed.

"So was I. I'm just better." She teased, getting up. "I'll see you around." She said, walking to the door, favoring her good leg.

"You OK?" Renee asked, genuine concern in her voice. She shrugged.

"Just fine."

"Your leg's all swollen, you seeing a doctor?" She nodded.

"Of course." It wasn't a total lie. She worked with a bunch of them. She didn't need them to tell her what it was, she knew what it was. She knew she had been stupid to sit in the car for six hours and then on a plane for three without stretching or walking. But the aspirin was taking care of it, not as well as a prescription would, but she didn't want to have to pay for it, or put up with the side effects.

She popped another aspirin at the water fountain and walked, hoping that it would work this time, hoping that the dose would be enough, finally. She limped to the elevator and started planning out what exactly she was going to tell Garret as soon as she walked back into the mourge.


	32. Chapter 32

She knocked on the door frame as she walked to find him with his legs propped up on the desk and a tumbler of scotch in hand. "Tsk tsk tsk, drinking on the job."

"Going to report that?" He asked, a little bit of light in his eyes.

"Only if you don't give me a glass." He grinned and removed the other tumbler, pouring out a generous measure for her. "It's not bourbon, but it is whiskey." She said, raising her glass to clink with his.

"So what brings you here?" He asked, and she shrugged. For some reason, she felt more nervous than ever, and she had no clue why. She shouldn't be this nervous. It was nothing, it was just Garret, and this was a positive move. But she still had a nervous feeling in her chest, and her palms were awfully damn.

She might as well just get it over with. "I, uh, I felt like talking." He smirked that sexy smirk that she wanted to wipe off of his face.

"Oh, really, about what?" She swallowed hard, trying to will the tightness in her chest away, it was just nerves, but she had nothing to be nervous about. Nothing at all.

"Well, about us." She said, and found the pain to be getting worse, not better, it was harder to breathe. She took a deep breath and tried to forget about it.

"What about us?" He asked and she shrugged, fighting a wince at the pain. It couldn't be a heart attack, she knew that much, the pain was on the right. It's just nerves, that's all it was, but she had no reason to be nervous. Relax, it's nothing. She kept repeating that over and over again to herself. He was just another guy.

Nothing to be so nervous about, nothing at all. "Well, the past week has been driving me nuts, all I could think about is, well, you, screw diving headfirst into the shallow end." He smirked again, and she walked around the desk to sit on his lap.

"Really?" He questioned, looking quite sexy with that smug look on his face.

"Really." She said, kissing him passionately. She thought it was the kiss that littearlly swept her off her feet as she fell back against the floor.

"Vicky?" He could hear the concern in his voice, the concern bordering on panic. She coughed, painfully, grimacing as she realized what exactly was going on. Nerves were not it. She should have noticed the symptoms. She should have been paying attention.

She was a textbook case, she should have noticed it long ago, when she first started showing symptoms. They'd been there for almost an hour, she had first started feeling the pain in Renee's office, but she had put it out of her mind. "I think-" She said, fighting down a deep breath, "-I think I need a doctor." She said, resting her head against him, trying to focus herself on breathing in and out


	33. Chapter 33

She awoke to find bright fluorescent lights hanging over her head. A large calloused hand brushed a lock of hair out of her face and she looked over to see her brother there, looking awfully concerned. "Hey sis." He said, and she went to reply to find a tube down her throat and she frowned. "I think the doc's gonna take that out when he comes by, but at the moment, it's nice to find you silent." She grinned. "You gave us all a fright you know, you almost died."

She really hadn't meant to almost die, she thought the aspirin would do it. And she was hoping to avoid the queasy feeling in her stomach. She hated what the only things that worked did to her digestive tract. "Don't ever do that again, this old man's heart can't take it." She grinned again and looked expectantly up at the doctor.

"Right, you're awake. Feeling up to breathing on your own?" She nodded. "Well then, I suppose we can take this out then." he tapped the ET tube and unhooked the ventilator from it. "Right, on the count of three, cough. One, two, three." She coughed and with a fluid motion the tube was out and the doctor quickly wrapped the thin tube across her face and behind her ears to give her some pure oxygen. "So, do you know what happened, I hear you went through med school." She glared pointedly at Aaron who tried to look innocent.

"PE." She said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Right. Now why weren't you on anti-coags?" She shrugged.

"No insurance. And they make me puke." The doctor shook his head.

"You're going to stay here overnight, we'll move you to a private room tomorrow, and you'll be in here for a week. And we will give you a script for coumadin which you will take." she frowned and rolled her eyes.

"Anything else?"

"Nope. You're a patient I shouldn't have had. You had a DVT the size of a golf ball in your leg and you have a history of blood clots, you should have known the symptoms. If I ever see you in here again, you're going to get more than just a stern talking to, and I'm pretty sure all the people around here will agree." She smiled sheepishly as the doctor walked out.

"Garret?" She asked and her brother grinned.

"He went to grab a cup of coffee. We're claiming he's family."

"ICU?" She asked, surprised to find the place to feel very much like a private room. Her brother nodded.

"You know, I think I can erase all my doubts about that guy. He looked just as worried as I did. When he called me on the phone he sounded like he was on the verge of snapping Ziggy." She glared at her brother as the man in question walked in.

"Ziggy?" Garret asked and if looks could kill her brother would have been keeled over right there.

"Her middle name's Czigany. Ziggy for short." She wanted to forcibly strangle her brother. She could see the humor in Garret's eyes though, and she relaxed just a bit. The two men exchanged a glance and she could see that the tension between them had eased, there was no longer the fight taking place between the two of them, Aaron had conceded that she might just be well off with Garret.

"I'm going to go get a cup of coffee." The taller man got up, taking the obvious hint to leave the couple alone.


	34. Chapter 34

A/N The fates seemed to have been conspiring against me for writing this, the last chapter. It was supposed to all be done before, this was the only chapter not written as a rough-draft, and well, fates seemed to have not wanted to let me write it, but finally I did. It's been a fun ride folks, love all of you who have read and reviewed, look for more from me real soon, soon as I get back...

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"So." She started, and he grinned.

"So." He replied.

"I guess that's a new one, gives a new meaning to a kiss literally sweeping someone off their feet." he grinned faintly, but it disappeared just as quickly. "You going to give me a sip of good caffeine?" He held out his coffee cup as she raised the bed and proceeded to take a long gulp of the hot liquid.

"You said a sip." She grinned.

"So, it was a big sip." His look quickly turned serious again. "Cheer up, I'm alright."

"You almost died." She shrugged.

"I've got more lives than a cat. If I can survive being in the middle of a lake in a sailboat with a fourteen foot metal mast in a thunderstorm I can survive this." Again, the smile flashed across his face.

"I was worried." She smiled.

"Really?" He nodded.

"The last week has been hell you know." She grinned.

"So are you saying you missed me?" Her grin tamed to a smirk as he tried to avoid the words that she knew he would say.

"Yes I am." She laughed and leaned over to kiss him passionately. "I don't think that this is the best place for that though." He said as he finally pulled away. She laughed as she leaned back against the bed.

"Hmm...you're right, too many rooms too close together. Wait til tomorrow when I have my own room." He grinned and this time it stuck.

"Sounds like a good idea." He said in a low, sexy voice that sent shivers straight to the base of her spine. He leaned down to kiss her again as Aaron returned with a cup of coffee for himself.

"Right. I thought I had given you lovebirds plenty of time." She grinned at her brother. "By the way, fine sir, I still haven't asked whether or not your intentions with my sister are entirely honorable."

"Aaron! We've already crossed the line of honorable, and I am a grown woman." She watched as Garret blanched with glee. Her brother simply glared at her.

"Can you ever be mature sis?"

"With someone like you as a role model? Hardly. Mr I'm-sixty-years-old-and-still-crash-on-my-sisters-couch you have no room to comment." He grinned at her.

"Ok, fine, you have me there. But that does not mean that I want to walk in to see my sister making out with her boyfriend. It was not something I wanted to see thirty years ago nor is it something I want to see now." She laughed. "The only difference is thirty years ago I would have battered the guy to a bloody pulp." He looked pointedly at Garret.

"But you're all grown up now. Mr. Maturity who knows how to keep his temper in check." Aaron nodded.

"Right. Provided that he loves you and wishes to see no harm come upon you. For fear of harm coming upon him." Again, the dark eyes of her brother met the dark eyes of her boyfriend.

"Never want to see her hurt." She smiled as she heard Garret say that, although with the faintest hint of the stress her brother was putting on him. What was it that Aaron had said? If they could put up with him, they could put up with her? She supposed that wasn't a totally bad thing. And Garret seemed to be holding up to the task quite admirably.

"Well then, I'm going to go check on Cesar, I left him with a neighbor and I hope he's doing alright." She laughed.

"Him and that damn dog." She knew it was to give the two of them more time alone, but still, her brother would use that time to check on his dog as well.

"He loves it. Just like he loves you." She could tell there was more on his lips. "Just like I love you." She grinned a broad grin, a loving grin.

"Really?" She asked, teasingly.

"Really." He kissed her gently but passionately.

"Good. Cause I love you too." She pulled him back by his tie as he started to back away, finally breaking the kiss when she ran out of air.

FIN


End file.
